A wildfire burning in the Sheep Creek area of Spanish Fork Canyon grew 1,300 acres on Friday, and officials called in 105 more firefighters to help Saturday when the blaze grew more than 50 percent.
The fire burned ”significantly” Friday afternoon as it moved into an area with thick timber, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Loyal Clark said. The blaze on Friday morning was estimated at 1,700 acres; on Saturday afternoon, the fire had grown to an estimated 3,000 acres (rather than a previously estimated 3,700 acres).
“It‘s still within a specific area we’ve designated for the fire to burn through; we don’t have anything that’s at risk,” Clark said. ”We don’t anticipate we’re going to have any problems with it at all.”
The U.S. Forest Service had 30 firefighters and a helicopter assigned to the fire, which is burning through grass, brush and timber. On Saturday, more crews were called in from the Bureau of Land Management and Utah County, and the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands joined, bringing the total number of personnel to 135.
“We’re just herding the fire into an area where it‘s really steep and rocky,” she said.
The flames are burning toward a canyon with a ”critical watershed,” she said, which crews are watching. If the fire gets too close to that area, firefighters will take a more active suppression role.
“But for right now, everything is looking really good and we‘re not anticipating that that’s going to be a problem at all,” she said.
Lightning sparked the fire on Aug. 11 in Tank Hollow.