This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Dozens of new lightning-sparked wildfires in the Arizona Strip area along the Utah-Arizona line kept firefighters scrambling Tuesday.
Rachel Tueller, fire information officer for the Color Country Management Area, said the newly designated Scenic Fire Complex — eight blazes which had blackened more than 720 acres in desert rangelands in an area bounded by St. George, Utah, Mesquite, Nev., and Littlefield, Ariz. — was 50 percent contained as of Tuesday.
About 150 firefighters, along with helicopters and air tankers dropping water and fire retardant, battled the Scenic Fire Complex Tuesday.
Lightning strikes on Monday ignited 31 small fires, many less than an acre in size. Most of those were being extinguished in an area northeast of Cedar City and between Carmel Junction and Kanab, Tueller said.
Crews had contained the 854-acre Middle Fire 50 miles south of St. George, also lit off by lightning on Saturday, while the Toddler Fire, estimated at 25 acres, was being allowed to burn in a remote area of the Dixie National Forest.
In western Utah, two lightning-causes fires continued to burn in sage and grass on Tuesday. The 482-acre Busby Fire, 90 miles south of Wendover, Utah, was 20 percent contained. The Slow Elk Fire had topped 100 acres, burning on Bureau of Land Management range 30 miles southwest of Vernon, and there was no estimate for its containment.
Meanwhile, smoke from northern Arizona's 4,400-acre-plus Plateau Fire reportedly was visible in Utah's Washington County on Tuesday. The Plateau Fire was burning on BLM land 10 miles south of Bloomington.