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Panguitch • Gusty winds fan flames another 1,200 acres of tinder-dry trees and brush in southern Utah's Brian Head Fire, which had blackened 59,956 acres as of dawn Friday.

But officials sounded optimistic about controlling the blaze as soon as containment rose slightly to 20 percent and conditions were more favorable for firefighters heading into the weekend.

Meanwhile, residents of the ski resort town of Brian Head — comprising roughly half of the 1,500 residents evacuated from the fire area over the past two weeks — were allowed to return to their homes at 7 a.m. Friday.

The blaze, begun June 17 when a resident's weed burning flared out of control, is the largest active wildfire in the nation. It had cost about $14.9 million to fight as of Wednesday, Brian Head Town Manager Bret Howser said. About 1,800 firefighters were on the scene Thursday.

And it's the fourth largest wildfire that's burned in Utah since 2003 — after the 363,000-acre Milford Flat Fire in 2007, the 107,800-acre Clay Springs Fire in 2012 and the 68,200-acre West Side Complex Fire in 2005.

Firefighters hope to meet a July 15 target for completing a ring of breaks and lines around the remaining flames and hot spots.

Winds over 30 mph whipped the fire through dense patches of beetle-killed trees Wednesday and Thursday. Shrubs and grass — parched by weeks in unseasonably hot weather and relative humidity percentages in the single digits — have flared into ember-spewing fireballs along the steep slopes.

Driving along State Route 143 to Panguitch Lake, multiple burn areas are visible on the south side of the road, where embers jumped the pavement and started small brush fires. All had been snuffed out as of Friday.

Hayden Houston, U.S. Forest Service fire information officer, grew up in the area and, as a child, explored the hills where the fire is now burning. He knows firsthand the difficult terrain firefighters have dealt with.

"We get some really steep areas in here that are rocky on one [side] and then you go over the next side, and it's thick timber, with a lot of deadfall in it," Houston said. "That's making it tricky for firefighters — you have to get into these places, and on foot. It takes a long time."

Lava fields and a maze of fallen trees — some killed by bark beetles years ago — have led to some "slips and falls" by firefighters, Houston said, though no serious injuries have been reported. Houston usually works on trail maintenance, and he said that before the fire broke out, he was clearing a trail in the area that had 180 downed trees to be cleared in an 8-mile stretch.

Panguitch Lake, which has several fishing resorts and dozens of cabins, was a ghost town Thursday evening. Cars were allowed to the lake on SR-143 starting Thursday, but no farther. Nobody answered a reporter's knock at the Panguitch Lake Resort, or the Bear Paw Fishing Resort — among several businesses that rapidly evacuated a week ago after the blaze took a sudden turn toward the water.

Flames at one point had surrounded nearly a third of the lake, where nine cabins were burned in the Clear Creek area.

Police and state officials were posted in pickups at side roads along SR-143, thwarting residents hoping to sneak into their cabins for the night.

Meanwhile, brightly colored signs had been posted up and down the highway, and throughout the nearby town of Panguitch, thanking firefighters for their days of hard work. Earlier this week, local children lined one of the main roads in town, giving lemonade and doughnuts to firefighters coming off the lines.

While many evacuees returned home Friday, vehicular access to the area remained restricted. Brian Head will only be accessible through the Cedar Breaks Monument via Highways 18 and 148, with the usual main route — Highway 143 — still closed between Brian Head and Parowan.

As Friday dawned, conditions improved for firefighters, with moderate winds out of the northwest in the forecast. Firefighters docused on the northern flank of the fire, the remaining area where "threats still exist for growth," officials said.