DUTCH JOHN, Daggett County — Residents began returning to this small northeastern Utah town Thursday morning three days after a raging wildfire came within 100 yards of some buildings.
The 20,000-acre Mustang Fire, which has been burning since Sunday, has not claimed any lives or touched any buildings but was only about 10 percent contained Thursday morning.
To the west, about 600 firefighters from across Utah and surrounding Western states are battling the East Fork Fire on the north slope of the Uinta Mountains. At 15,000 acres, just 15 percent of the fire had been contained Thursday morning. Firefighters were not going to even estimate a containment date until Friday or Saturday, said Kathy Jo Pollock, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service.
Near Dutch John, Lowell Snider and Frederick Causer arrived with an engine crew from Bend, Ore., when the fire was licking at the edges of the small northeastern Utah town, forcing the evacuation Monday of 150 residents.
"We were in a smoking hole — 360 degrees," Snider, 32, said.
Snider and his crew helped protect two gas stations in the town from being swallowed up by the flames.
Causer, 25, said it was hard to see even five feet ahead as smoke filled the area. Snider was standing with hose ready when a rushing wall of flames came near one of the gas stations.
"I couldn't see or breathe," Snider said.
"I lost sight of him in the smoke for a couple minutes," Causer added. "But he stood his ground. When the smoke cleared, he hadn't moved."
After several close calls, firefighters were able to protect the town, and the fire cut a swath around Dutch John. The surrounding hills are now only a gray wasteland of charred trees and ash.
"That was all green when we got here," Snider said.
By Thursday morning, the fire had continued moving to the east.
U.S. 191 across Flaming Gorge Dam reopened Wednesday afternoon as the fire began moving away from the structure and its nearby power plant. Power companies were still working Thursday morning to restore power to Dutch John.
Although authorities have not determined the specific cause of the fire, it's believed a trailer axle dragging on the ground may have sparked the inferno.
A fire in Brimhall Canyon in the Diamond Fork area of Utah County threatened some holiday-packed campgrounds Wednesday, said Uinta National Forest spokeswoman Loyal Clark.
Touched off by a lightning strike from a storm, the fire burned 25 acres before it was contained, Clark said, with the help of helicopters, an engine and two 20-person hand crews diverted from the nearby Springville hillside fire.
"We caught it just as it was making a run," Clark said.
Officials invited the public to a fire information meeting on Saturday at the U.S. Forest Service's Mountain View Ranger District office in Mountain View, Wyo.
In the Uintas, the Mirror Lake Scenic Highway, U-150, remains open except for the Stillwater and Christmas Meadows campground areas, Pollock said.
So far, the cost of battling the East Fork Fire is at $800,000, with average daily cost of $200,000 for the use of four large helicopters with drop buckets and two small reconnaissance copters equipped global-positioning satellites.
Rich McCrea, a fire behavior analyst with the Nevada Interagency Fire Team, said the blaze has been an intense, quick-moving animal that is at times unpredictable.
"This is aggressive with lots of extreme fire behavior," he said, adding that flames have "crowned" easily at 150 feet.
McCrea said the fire is being egged on by Utah being in the grip of a moderate to extreme drought.
"There is lots of heavy deadwood and fuels, and the fire is very reflective of the drought in the way it is burning."
If fire officials don't get more of handle on it during the respite of the cooler weather and possible mountain thunderstorms over the next several days, the fire could easily march all the way across the mountain, burning three miles a day.
There are several strategies, in place however.
A repel crew out of Oregon was coming in, using "hotshot" firefighters to tackle some of the most critical areas. Grant Beebe, an operations section chief, said crews also plan to "back burn" a section of the fire into submission.
Overall, Beebe said crews are trying to "herd" the fire into the high country to save subdivisions, guard stations and other structures.
"We're taking a piece of it a day at a time to try to cut off its head," he said.
Cloud cover and humidity gave the 400 firefighters battling the Mustang Fire the chance to go on the offensive Wednesday morning after spending the first few days in defensive mode. "This cloud cover and high humidity that we had this morning has really put a damper on it — until now," Fire Information Officer Oscar Martinez said.
As it usually does that time of day, the weather turned hot, dry and windy by about 2 p.m., sparking several flare ups. By 4:30 p.m. strong wind gusts forced a helicopter to end water drops and caused white caps in the Green River in front of Flaming Gorge Dam.
"Predictably there it is," Martinez said as he stood at the dam and watched a previously cool spot flare up along a ridge to the northeast.
"We always say we control the mornings, the fire controls the afternoons," Martinez added. "You're just hoping the things that you did in the morning are going to hold."
Much of that work included digging fire lines starting from the western tip of the fire at Mustang Ridge and working around the burn zone to "flank" the fire.
"In wild land fire fighting you're not squirting water on it, you're just trying to deprive it of that fuel," Martinez said.
Bulldozers and fire crews work day and night to clear brush from the edges of the fire to keep it from spreading.
"It's hot and dirty and dry," Deputy Incident Commander George Custer said of the work. "The ground's steep and the footing's not real good. . . . They're up against black ground with very little shade."
Besides the mandatory flame retardant gloves, green pants, long sleeve yellow shirts and hard hats, each fire fighter carries between 25 pounds and 35 pounds of equipment, Custer said.
Snider returned from the front lines Wednesday, his face and clothes covered in soot. He hadn't showered for three days.
"It's all important work," Custer said. "If you don't put it out all the way you turn your back on it and it flames up again."
In some spots, like the southeastern tip of the fire that has crossed the Green River, firefighters must drive more than two hours just to reach the front lines.
Authorities were planning to set up a smaller camp near the Green River by Thursday, where hot dinners would be flown in, but firefighters wouldn't have access to showers or indoor plumbing. A mess hall, tent city and command center have been set up at the local school in Dutch John. Firefighters receive daily briefings there before heading out to their various assignments.
Wednesday night's briefing was notably somber as crews observed a moment of silence for the firefighter killed in wildfire near Durango, Colo.
"It concerns everybody," said Oregon firefighter Robert Yentzer, 28. "It's just something you can't put behind you."
Yentzer spent eight years fighting structure fires in Georgia but was about to go out for his first night on the Mustang Fire. He stood quietly by himself after Wednesday night's briefing.
"You never know what to expect with any fire," Yentzer said.
Yentzer was part of a force of firefighters about to embark on a 12-hour shift in the rugged mountains around the Green River.
Much of his gear still new looking, 20-year-old Mike Arries stood in front of his tent with all the youthful enthusiasm of someone about to embark on their first wildfire assignment.
"I just like fires," Arries said.
Arries, of Crawfordville, Fla. is part of a 20-man hand crew from his state. Asked if he was nervous for his first mission, Arries replied, "No. You get nervous, you get hurt."
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But safety is the foremost concern for crews battling any wildfire. Unsure footing, rugged terrain and shifting winds can cause serious injuries to any firefighter caught off guard.
"You've got to really pay attention what you're doing because at any time the wind can change and blow it back on you faster than you realize," said Danny Sullivan, one of the squad bosses for the Florida crew that began its first shift Wednesday night.
Sullivan, who's fought wildfires each summer for the past 18 years, had one of his crew last summer on a fire in Wyoming step through a hot spot in the ground and burn his leg.
The steep terrain and high elevation was expected to pose a significant challenge to Sullivan's squad, which is made up mostly of first-timers who haven't worked in higher elevations.
"You wake up in the morning with a headache and can't understand why," Sullivan said. "Well, you have to tell them it's because of the elevation."
Contributing: Amy Joi Bryson, Sharon Haddock
E-mail: djensen@desnews.com