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Firefighters struggled anew to hem in the 720-acre Wheeler Fire on Wednesday, hoping a renegade aerial drone would not again intrude into their critical, smoky airspace.
On Tuesday, the drone's presence forced a fire-retardant-laden air tanker to divert course and dump its 500-gallon load on a location other than its primary target. Law enforcement officers were on the scene Wednesday in case the drone made an encore.
A fleet of air tankers and helicopters — six of the former and four of the latter — renewed the offensive Wednesday in support of 230 firefighters below working to cut containment lines around the human-caused blaze, located about a mile southwest of the Deer Creek Reservoir in Wasatch County.
Kim Osborn, of the U.S. Forest Service, said the blaze had grown 100 acres between Tuesday night and dawn Wednesday,
The fire, possibly linked to a burned ATV found in the hills above the Canyon Meadows subdivision, began Monday afternoon. Crews quickly turned back flames from the homes and no structures had been lost as flames continued to lick up oak, grass, sage and mountain maple.
As of Wednesday night, the fire was 20 percent contained with no estimate for when full containment would be reached.
Another fire was threatening at least one building in Cache County. The fire was burning near Wellsville on Wednesday night, according to the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands. Further details were not immediately available.
In southwestern Utah, the lightning-caused Oak Grove Fire had reached 350 acres. Fire information officer Marcia Gilles said Dixie National Forest's Oak Grove Campground had been evacuated and closed as about 100 firefighters, assisted by several air tankers, attacked the flames burning in the rugged, steep terrain of the Pine Valley Wilderness Area.
The blaze was out of control Wednesday, continuing to consume tinder-dry pinyon, juniper, oak brush and conifers. No structures were threatened, and no injuries had been reported. Conditions were not expected to improve soon, as a high pressure system was forecast to raise temperatures.
Meanwhile, a Davis County blaze that had been declared contained on Tuesday flared anew as fields of the oil-rich phragmite reeds reignited near the community of West Point. It was at 335 acres and 40 percent contained as of Wednesday afternoon, with about 50 firefighters on the lines, fire information officer Doug Bitton said.
The blaze, dubbed the Phrag Fire, was human-caused. On Monday, firefighters responding to the blaze found a 29-year-old North Ogden man, shirtless and shoeless, at the scene. He allegedly had driven his vehicle through five different gates to trespass on the property, where he then set a campfire that spread.
After a struggle, Davis County sheriff's deputies arrested him. He was booked into jail on suspicion of reckless burning, trespassing on restricted state lands, causing a wildlands fires and disorderly conduct.
— Erin Alberty contributed to this story
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