The human-caused Yellow Lake fire sparked in eastern Wasatch County on Sept. 28. It is 18% contained.
Summit County Emergency Management issued new mandatory evacuations for the Yellow Lake Fire Thursday night.
Sierra Hellstrom with the U.S. Forest Service said the evacuation is for the area north of Mirror Lake Highway between the Yellow Pine Trailhead at mile marker 6 and the Highline Trail at mile marker 35. The area from Ashley National Forest to the north of Tabiona is also closed.
Anyone in that area has been ordered to leave immediately. All recreation activities, campgrounds, trails and parking lots are prohibited in the area until Dec. 31.
Hellstrom said despite these closures, Mirror Lake Highway remains open.
“The forest [service is] being proactive to close those areas and asking the recreationists and the hunters to evacuate those areas now, so that if the fire is there, we know that the public is safe and we don't have people in the forest that is much more difficult to evacuate when the fire is in the area,” she said.
Hellstrom said the Grandaddy Lakes area of Ashley National Forest has been evacuated. The town of Hanna in Duchesne is under a “set” order and ready to evacuate at a moment's notice.
Hellstrom said there are now 564 people fighting the fire and they continue to face difficult conditions.
“We're still seeing July weather conditions in October here at base camp, we were at 55 degrees this morning, where the norm is usually closer to the 30s, so more than 20 degrees above normal,” she said.
It’s also very dry. Hellstrom said normally the humidity rises overnight and the fire starts to die down. However, the humidity remains below 20% overnight and the blaze is not dying down.
Hellstrom said Highway 35 remains closed as the fire continues to jump across the road.
“The fire is active along a large portion of Highway 35. We are continuing to see huge boulders rolling onto the road. The road guards are down due to spots being affected by the fire. Large, heavy logs are rolling and falling onto the road, and it continues to have fire activity on both sides of the highway.”
Fire officers are asking people only call 911 to report life-threatening emergencies. The non-emergency number is 435-615-3600.
