KANOSH, Millard County — By Tuesday night, the 5-day-old Milford Flat fire had grown to 329,100 acres but fire crews had achieved 30 percent containment, said Vince Mazzier, spokesman for the Type 1 National Incident Management Team.
The lightning-sparked fire is believed to be the largest in state history.
The eastern and western sides of the fire were quiet Tuesday, but the northern and southern flanks posed problems for crews. Flames in the north settled into a rugged area that was difficult for crews to reach. Wind pushed flames southward by Manderfield, Beaver County, because a thunderstorm arrived a day earlier than expected.
Rowdy Muir, the Type 1 team's commander, said wind and lightning from thunderstorms could cause problems for firefighters until the end of the week, when moisture should bring relief.
To date, firefighting costs have totaled $1.1 million.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved a grant to cover 75 percent of the state's firefighting costs.
"We're still receiving quite a few firefighters," Mazzier said. "We have 400-plus and should be even going above that."
Firefighters are building fire lines with shovels and bulldozers. Others are "mopping up" in places that are otherwise burned out, Mazzier said.
Muir said teams are on the fire around the clock. They each work 16-hour shifts, with some day and night shifts overlapping. They usually return to the flanks of the fire they have previously worked.
"Once they know the turf, we like to send them back," Muir said.
Three helicopters and five planes are assisting the firefighting efforts.
Millard County Sheriff Robert Dekker has screened numerous phone calls from ranchers who need help moving cattle to unthreatened rangeland. Tuesday morning, many calls came from ranchers in Clear Lake.
"I've got calls from several of the cattlemen asking about (what to do if they) lose rangeland," he said. "Everyone is at a high level of concern. It's their income, their livelihood."
Rancher Leer Yardley has 300 head of cattle and plans to spend today trying to get water to the survivors.
He said he found only five dead cows Tuesday but has a lot of range territory to cover before he can get a complete count of the fire casualties.
Yardley said a neighboring rancher found 37 dead cows Tuesday. About 1,000 head of cattle have been in the range west of I-15 between Beaver and Cove Fort, much of which is now scorched earth.
Water piped from holding ponds sustain the cattle. Fire destroyed fittings at the watering stations.
"I'll be all day working on those," Yardley said Tuesday evening. "I also don't know how much water the (firefighting) helicopters dipped out of the ponds to see how much water is left."
Michael Rutherford has been avoiding the ruins of his gift shop, the Dog Valley Trading Post in Cove Fort, located in a historic log cabin that was more than 100 years old when it burned to the ground Saturday.
"It's kind of depressing to be out there," he said. "There was basically nothing to save. Everything was gone."
For the past five years, Rutherford has sold jewelry, pottery, knives and toys — mostly handcrafted by members of the Hopi, Creek, Shoshoni, Piute and Navajo Indian nations. He estimates he lost between $40,000 and $55,0000 in uninsured merchandise in the cabin, which he leased.
Rutherford is no stranger to wildfires. Last year, the 28,000-acre Dog Valley fire marched so close to his store he was certain it was going to go up in flames.
"This year we didn't have any notice," he said, describing one moment when the fire was on the west side of I-15 and the next when it was at his store's door.
Rutherford would like to open the store again but is unsure if he will.
"Because the land is owned by one group of people and the cabin is owned by another group, we don't know what is going to happen," he said.
E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com; sfidel@desnews.com