Stray shots from a shooting range ignited a 100-acre fire Saturday evening just below Bountiful Peak and within two miles from homes.
The blaze was just one of several state wildfires that kept fire crews from Utah, Nevada and Idaho busy this weekend.The Bountiful blaze started about 5:30 p.m. after a man shot tracer bullets from automatic or semi-automatic weapons while at the outdoor Bountiful Lions Rifle Range, said South Davis Deputy Fire Chief Terry Graham. Tracer bullets burn or spark so that the shooter can better see where the bullets are going.
The fire spread rapidly up the steep hill of grass and scrub oak.
More than 30 firefighters from Bountiful, South Davis County and Farmington fire departments struggled for more than four hours to control the fire. Forest Service crews were to fight the fire throughout the night and didn't expect to extinguish the blaze until sometime Sunday, Graham said.
An airplane dropped flame retardant on the fire and a helicopter was brought in to dump gallons of water on the fire's hot spots. As of late Saturday, no homes were in jeopardy.
In central and western Utah, crews fought to contain multiple wildfires that began Friday.
A small fire on West Mountain near Utah Lake in Utah County was contained early Saturday, but several other blazes continued to flare up and could ravage thousands of acres if gusty winds continue to carry flames, fire officials said.
Sheri Ramsay, fire information officer at Fish Lake National Forest, said as many as 18,000 acres are being threatened by a series of lightning-produced fires near the sand dunes in Juab County.
Dubbed the Little Sahara Complex fire, the blaze northeast of the popular recreation area forced officials to close the site through the weekend until the fire is contained.
U-6, the main access road to the sand dunes between Tintic and Jericho, also remained closed with Juab County Sheriff's officials providing roadblock.
By Saturday afternoon, the blaze that originally started Friday from a dozen smaller fires had complexed, or run together, and consumed more than 10,000 acres, Ramsay said.
Livestock, including cattle and sheep, were safely evacuated from the complex area, as the fire continued to burn sagebrush, grass, pinyon juniper and greasewood.
She said a Type 2 fire team was called out to the area to handle management. The team consists of a handful of "overhead personnel" who will manage plans of attacking the fire. Teams are commonly called out when fires consume more than 1,000 acres and are not contained, she said.
Three "hot shot" crews - one from Draper and another from Nevada - were also battling the blaze, as four air tankers continued to drop retardant from above. The fire was also threatening the nearby McIntyre Ranch on Saturday afternoon.
U.S. Forest Service officials in Utah County said efforts to fight two fires on Lake Mountain continued to be difficult.
Vicki May, a fire information assistant, said the 300-acre Soldier Pass fire could run on the west side of the mountain if winds pick up.
"The strategy is to monitor it closely and hope we don't get 30 mph winds," May said.
There are five 20-person crews battling the blaze, including a wildfire team from Idaho. May said the fire is mostly burning sage grass and pinyon juniper trees, as helicopters and bulldozers are assisting firefighters.
Another fire south of Lake Mountain on the Utah/Juab border, called the Bootlegger fire, is burning at 7,000 feet on some 30 acres. May said officials aren't expecting a lot of activity with the fire but would be prepared to send crews in if needed.
She said the challenge is that teams would have to hike in for three hours just to get near the blaze, so efforts will be limited to water drops from helicopters or air tankers.
A small wildfire that broke out on the northwest side of Stansbury Island Friday night was contained in less than three hours, said Sharon Knowlton, fire information officer with Salt Lake Interagency Fire Center.
She said rangers at Stansbury, Tooele County, were investigating the cause of the blaze that burned about 150 acres of grass and sage. It was contained at 10 p.m. Friday, she said.