A 9,500-acre wildfire that closed the Golden Spike National Historic Site earlier this week is still raging, thanks to unseasonably high temperatures and gusty winds.
"It came within about a mile from the site, and that was close enough for them to be extremely concerned," said Dick Kline, fire information officer with Interagency Fire Center. "Up in that county, a mile's not that far away."The historical site was closed earlier Monday afternoon as staff instructed visitors to leave the area. The visitors center reopened Tuesday, but high temperatures and winds were again forecast for Wednesday.
"It is going to be very windy, hot and dry and it is not what we would consider very favorable firefighting conditions," Kline said.
The fire made a 2,200-acre run Tuesday afternoon over county and state land after winds pushed flames across fire lines, Kline said.
The fire, which officials earlier had hoped would be contained Tuesday, was 70 percent contained by nightfall. Full containment was projected for late Thursday.
The lightning-sparked blaze began Aug. 27 and burned in grasses and brush about 11/2 miles north of the northern Utah historic site.
Meantime, fire officials closely watched a complex of three small blazes in southern Utah dubbed the Wet Sandy Complex. The fires burned in the Dixie National Forest about eight miles north of Hurricane.
They were sparked by lightning Sunday and had charred about 635 acres, said Randy Beckstrand, fire information officer with the Dixie National Forest.
The largest of the blazes was only 10 percent contained Tuesday. But the outlook was good as long as the winds remained calm, he said.
Two air tankers, a helicopter and 88 workers fought the fires.