After local emergency responders banned fireworks in most rural areas of Wasatch County for Pioneer Day weekend, state government took it a step further.
Now until restrictions are lifted, fireworks and other pyrotechnic devices are banned on state lands and unincorporated private lands in Wasatch and Daggett counties. Tracer ammunition and exploding targets are included in the ban.
Wasatch Fire Marshal Clint Neerings said the level of fire danger is changing quickly at this point in the summer, and he and other fire officials will continue to monitor conditions and make decisions based on what happens next.
He said the most concerning factor now is thick, tall grass thanks to the long, wet spring and has since died off and become highly flammable.
Neerings said the recent bans are intended to prevent the riskiest activities without hindering others of lower risk.
“Basically,” he said, “we drew the line at the line of our wildland urban interface area where access to and the propensity for a large loss fire is elevated from just in the valley floor. So basically, in any area where a fire can get running up grade get traveling faster, difficult to access and get suppression to which causes loss of life property and lack of ability to access that increases the cost of suppression.”
The Wasatch County Fire District reported a lightning strike caused a brush fire above Wallsburg Thursday. A release said crews kept the damage to one-tenth of an acre in size but warned it’s an example of how easily fires can start during the dry and hot summer.
