Posted on 06/25/2005 2:32:06 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
Residents of the small town of Gunlock were told to evacuate Saturday because a wildfire that had burned about 40,000 acres was approaching the community and the weather was hot and windy.
Flames were still about 4 miles from Gunlock, but officials evacuated the town of about 350 in southwestern Utah as a precaution, Bureau of Land Management spokesman David Boyd said Saturday morning.
"Depending on what the winds do, it definitely could get close to Gunlock," Boyd said.
Elsewhere, firefighters near Kelso, Calif., struggled to surround a 52,000-acre wildfire in a wilderness preserve that includes corrals from the 1870s, historic mines and sites with ancient Indian pictographs. The fire was fueled by grass, sagebrush, juniper and pinyon pine that had grown unusually dense after last winter's abundant rainfall.
A brush and grass fire that charred 60,000 acres in Arizona was about 20 percent contained Saturday after turning away from an upscale community northeast of Phoenix. Evacuees began returning home Friday.
Arizona fire officials were concerned about a threat of more thunderstorms that could fan flames and generate lightning.
And in southern Nevada, a pall of smoke had drifted over the Las Vegas Strip from 19 blazes that charred nearly 54,000 acres of parched grass, desert brush and mountain pines.
The blaze threatening Gunlock was a combination of five smaller fires started by lightning on Wednesday that had joined and were expected to continue spreading Saturday.
"At this point it's still a ways away, but there's a definite concern there," Boyd said.
It is the second natural disaster this year for Gunlock, located about 20 miles northwest of St. George. The town was isolated in January when heavy rain caused flooding that washed out bridges and destroyed several homes in the region.
The wildfire near Kelso, Calif., in the rugged Mojave National Preserve, was 15 percent contained Saturday, Ranger Linda Slater said. Officials worried that flames could be fanned by gusts up to 45 mph as a cold front moved through the area, she added.
Lightning had started five separate fires earlier in the week in the preserve near the Nevada state line, said Capt. Greg Cleveland, a spokesman for the Southern California Incident Management Team. Several of the fires then merged, prompting residents of the Fourth of July Canyon and Round Valley areas to evacuate. The exact number of evacuees was not immediately known.
The fires destroyed five homes, six trailers and other structures and damaged some historic ranch homes, Cleveland said. Officials could not immediately say if any of the archaeological sites also were damaged. More than 500 firefighters battled the flames.
I took my dogs out last night about 2 AM for their necessary duties. The almost full moon was blood red over the Wasatch Front because of the smoke. It's still smokey this evening. And it's not even July yet.
More than 200,000 acres burned so far........I bet you that if it was Washington DC going up in flames like that, the Defense Department would get the necessary firefighting equipment........it's scandalous, that this is still happening........when it comes to firefighting, we still exist in the Middle Ages, using hand-held hoses and stupid little buckets to douse 100-foot flames.
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