This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Crews made progress on the nearly 3-week-old Saddle Fire in southwestern Utah on Thursday, thanks to a little rain.

More than 700 firefighters — working with bulldozers, picks and shovels on the ground, and aided by fire retardant- and water-bearing air tankers and helicopters in the smoky skies — had reached 29 percent containment of the 1,540-acre blaze burning in Dixie National Forest, 25 miles north of St. George as Thursday ended.

Incident Commander Bill Hahnenberg said that crews continued to shore up existing fire breaks, digging new ones, and clearing away tinder-dry vegetation near structures in Pine Valley. Last week, flames from the fire, sparked by lightning on June 13, approached within a mile of some of the region's hundreds of summer homes.

Meanwhile, aircraft again kept up regular missions laying down ribbons of firefighting chemicals along the Saddle Fire's perimeter, and bombarding hot spots within the blaze with tons of water. Most offensive measures against the fire have relied on the air fleet, since the terrain of Saddle Mountain is steep, rocky and inaccessible.

As of Thursday, however, the fire had spread some on its western edge, burning downslope into "gentler terrain" where ground crews could directly counterattack, Hahnenberg said.

Fortunately, most of the fire's growth has occurred as it has turned back on itself, lapping up previously unburned swaths of conifer, pinyon, juniper and brush.

"The fire has been active during [the] night-time burning period," Hahnenberg said. "[Flames] will continue to make small uphill runs associated with group torching."

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