That includes Summit County, which has released its guidelines for wildfire evacuations and alerts.
This year, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office launched a new siren it will sound from its vehicles if an area needs to be evacuated.
Park City Fire Chief Peter Emery said the community will have to work together to stay safe this summer.
“It can be a really easy summer or a really hard one, and it's going to take a team effort, not only from fire departments but from all of our communities,” he told the Summit County Council May 20.
So far, Park City is the only town to enact fire restrictions in the Wasatch Back.
On May 21, Gov. Spencer Cox issued a statewide drought emergency. He said despite the May storms, the state is primed for wildfire activity.
Great Basin Coordination Center meteorologist Basil Newmerzhycky said there is a silver lining.
“With drought, there is good news, at least a little bit of a silver lining. We, in most areas, don't have a really good grass crop, especially in central and southern areas,” he said. “A lot of the grass fires will not be as prevalent this year.”
But, he said that’s not the same in the middle elevations.
“There's a lot of dormant brush or some carryover fuels from some of the recent wet winters. We do have a concern, and our concerns already are being realized on the ground,” he said.
So far this year, 160 wildfires have burned 8,000 acres across Utah. Cox said 84% of those were human caused and preventable.
“One spark is all it takes to ignite a wildfire that can threaten homes, communities, watersheds, wildlife habitat, and, of course, cost millions of dollars to suppress,” he said.
Summit County encourages residents to sign up for its wildfire text alerts.
To sign up for non-emergency season updates, residents can text “SCFIRE” to 91896.
Residents can also receive text and email alerts for fire restrictions, conditions, red flag warnings and emergency updates through the county's website.
