Dangerous Wildfires FORCE Salt Lake City Residents To Evacuate

Daily Report July 22,2024

For the second time in a week, residents living uphill from Utah’s State Capitol have been forced to evacuate because of another wildfire burning near Salt Lake City.

The fire was still zero percent contained as of Sunday while more than 100 firefighters worked around-the-clock to save houses from the approaching flames.

On the ground, helicopters and airplanes dumped water from large buckets fighting to hold back flames that had moved onto Ensign Peak. This is why firefighters put special emphasis on saving homes about 2,000 feet (600 meters) up East Capitol Boulevard. Refuge was provided at the capitol complex for evacuees who needed to escape the blistering heat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YT_0-05fJg

“With the heat, as well as the wind direction and just the temperatures out here and the fuel moisture, it’s kind of a recipe that we could have a quickly running fire,” Division Chief Bob Silverthorne of the Salt Lake City Fire Department said at a Saturday news briefing.

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Police officers went door-to-door to notify homeowners after the fire department issued a mandatory evacuation for an area with 40 homes on Sandhurst Drive north of Dorchester Drive in response to the wildfire.

Officials have not confirmed the cause and are still investigating how exactly the 150-acre brush fire ignited. But by the time Sunday morning, Utah Fire Info listed it as started at zero percent contained and human-caused on their website.

That fits into a larger pattern that’s been seen throughout the state this wildfire season. The Utah Forest Info website says more than 421 of these wildfires are started by humans, and reported that this year over 585 fires have burned at least thousands of acres in the state.

Firefighters keep up the fight to try and contain this wildfire, in an effort if possible save some of these communities from further damage. Aerial and ground crews are working together to keep the blaze from destroying lives and property in its path.