Salt Lake City – More firefighters poured into central Utah on Tuesday to confront a wildfire that grew to 469 square miles and left behind a blackened landscape resembling a “nuclear explosion.”
“What once was a beautiful mountain range is black. You look out and all you see is about 10 different fires and dust devils and blackened ground,” said Garth Larsen, manager of the Blundell geothermal power plant, where employees were trapped when the fire began last week.
About 300 firefighters were at the Milford Flat fire, with 200 more expected, fire-information spokeswoman Jean Bergerson said. It grew to 311,000 acres, or 469 square miles, but gained only about 11,000 acres. The fire was listed at 10 percent contained.
Bergerson said securing Interstate 15, a major north-south route for the West, still was a top priority.
Afternoon winds stirred up the south end of the fire, near the town of Beaver, said Vince Mazzier of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
Crews were using a bulldozer to create a fire line. If that fails, an intentional fire to remove vegetation along I-15 could be set, a tactic that would require closing the highway for safety reasons, Mazzier said.
I-15 was closed periodically last weekend as flames jumped the interstate, smoke blackened the skies and a lack of visibility contributed to a fatal crash involving two people on a motorcycle.
Officials warned that hot, dry weather was expected to continue for the next few days.
Gusty winds could make conditions treacherous and suddenly aggravate the fire, which began Friday with lightning.
The area in Millard and Beaver counties, 120 miles south of Salt Lake City, is a vast expanse of high desert and rangeland.
