This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
Nearly a month after lightning ignited the Saddle Fire, crews finally have the end in sight for their ordeal in southwestern Utah's nearly inaccessible, steep, rocky and smoldering high desert.
The blaze, 25 miles north of St. George in the Dixie National Forest, began Wednesday at 1,765 acres and 42 percent containment. However, after about $10 million was spent on nearly 300 firefighters, and daily waves of air tankers and helicopters bombarded the blaze with hundreds of thousands of gallons of fire retardants and water, crews may be just a week away from completing fire lines around charred Saddle Mountain.
Fire official Bill Hahnenberg estimated 100 percent containment of the fire, which began on June 13, by July 15.
Wednesday's strategy was generally the same as what has worked well to gradually give crews the upper hand on the flames blackening swaths of conifer trees, brush, pinyon and juniper: While firefighters on the ground work to maintain and expand fire breaks and dig new lines along the slopes and valleys, aircraft maintained a relentless assault along the blaze's perimeter and over flareups and hot spots.
Crews set backfires along the southeastern side of the wildfire to deny the main blaze avenues of escape, keeping the flames within the perimeter and consuming patches of brush, downed trees and undergrowth left untouched during the Saddle Fire's initial spread.
"There is minimal fire spread with group torching," Hahnenberg reported. "The majority of fire spread will be continued creeping and smoldering fire on the steep slopes."
Fire managers were carefully watching for any new growth, since especially dry and hot conditions were expected to persist into the weekend.
A 5-mile aircraft exclusion zone remains in place over the fire.
While there has not been a repeat of several unmanned, remote-controlled drone intrusions reported in the first weeks of the blaze, a private airplane did wander into the zone early Monday. It did not, as the earlier drone incidents did, halt aerial firefighting efforts — but the infraction was reported to the Washington County Sheriff's Office.
In northern Utah's Weber Canyon, a 52-acre grass fire, believed sparked on Monday by a freight train, was 100 percent contained about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday night.
A third blaze in Sanpete County, the Dry Canyon Fire, was estimated at 2 to 3 acres Wednesday with no threatened structures or closures. The county fire warden was still on the scene late Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, the National Weather Service — noting especially hot, dry conditions — put the western Uinta Basin under a Red Flag Warning until 10 p.m. Wednesday.
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