In a major wildfire, how would Park City evacuate? Summit County officials break down the region’s risks

Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit Park City each year, spending millions year-round in the resort town built on rugged terrain, where water can be scarce amid extreme drought.

Their dollars drive the region’s economy. But their presence presents a clear challenge for Summit County emergency managers:

If a wildfire broke out in the relatively secluded city, how effectively can first responders guide residents — and visitors — to safety?

Summit County’s wildfire risk factors

About 85 percent of Summit County is in an area considered low risk for wildfires, according to the county’s Community Wildfire Preparedness Plan. But officials still prepare for the worst.

On July 17, a fire in Wanship — located north of Rockport Reservoir — suddenly burned about 40 acres after it spread from a structure fire, prompting evacuations. And last September’s Marshall Fire in Boulder County, Colorado showed experts that dangerous fires can happen anywhere, at any time — even in places that aren’t designated as high risk, said Thomas Cova, a University of Utah professor with expertise in wildfire emergency preparedness.

“What we learned from that fire is that if you don’t have any rain at all — I mean zero measurable precipitation — for like four to six months, and then you have a really big wind event that’s dry, and warm and strong, you can burn almost anything,” Cova said. “It means that basically any place can become a fire zone if the conditions are met.”

One of those conditions is available fuels, a top concern for Summit County Emergency Manager Kathryn McMullin. The county’s most populated town — Park City — has a host of flammable fuels, since most buildings there are wood-framed.

“Park City did burn; the entire town burned in the early 1900s,” Cova said. “A lot of those structures on Main Street are wood, so that’s the Marshall Fire equation — where you have a fire that starts off maybe in a ski resort, burns down into the community, and then goes from wood home to wood home.”

Summit County’s cheatgrass and other dry fuels aren’t unique to the area, but they can still feed wildfires that grow rapidly with a single spark — like Tooele County’s Jacob City Fire, and Millard County’s Halfway Hill Fire.

“We also have a lot of people that come up and recreate in Summit County. They camp and they enjoy it, and we’re glad that they do,” McMullin said. “But it can increase the likelihood of someone not putting out a campfire — and then when they’re up in those areas, getting water to those areas can be very difficult.”

McMullin said Summit County hasn’t yet experienced a wildfire where a lack of water impacted the firefighting response, although small ignitions in outlying areas did require outside water to be transported in to fight flames.

But in the case of a remote wildfire, Summit County maps out all available water sources so crews can be aware of what’s nearby. The county also establishes relationships with local landowners who could provide water from their property’s pond or lake if needed.

“We have relationships established where we can contact those property owners and ask permission to get water from that site,” McMullin said, “and work with them to see what’s best to getting this fire extinguished.”

“That’s a big part of being ready for the fire, because a fire can happen anywhere — and if you only know a few areas,” McMullin said, “you’re going to be in big trouble.”

Emergency planning in a tourist economy

Summit County is home to the “greatest snow on Earth,” the Sundance Film Festival and the Kimball Arts Festival — big draws, along with many others, that make tourism one of the region’s biggest industries.

Park City’s Evacuation Plan estimates that between 15,000-30,000 people populate the town during its Independence Day festivities. The plan also estimates that 30,000-35,000 people populate each resort during a peak ski day.

But the same visitors that drive area revenue typically aren’t as familiar with the region’s specific wildfire guidelines.

“If we have a large-scale fire,” McMullin said, tourists “don’t have supplies on hand; they don’t typically have preparedness kits; and they may not have backup resources of somewhere else they can go — they’ll need to be sheltered.”

Park City Emergency Manager Mike McComb said the town combats this challenge with emergency alerts. The alerts function like Amber Alerts, so emergency managers don’t have to rely on opt-in messaging for visitors who may be threatened by an approaching wildfire.

The resort town’s evacuation plan also splits the city up into zones, and details the typical populations in each area — such as hikers, visitors and work staff at local businesses. The plan then details what assistance may be needed to evacuate each of these groups, like how trail runners with dogs may need transportation in order to evacuate.

“It really takes a full community response,” McComb said.

Each Summit County community has evacuation challenges

Park City sits in a pocket surrounded by steep mountain ranges. There are a lot of people, and not a lot of places to go. How best do you evacuate it?

“I’ve lived in Utah since the late ‘90s, and every time I take that Kimball Junction exit, and I see the flow of traffic coming from Park City, I’m always stunned,” Cova said. “That four-lane road used to be a two-lane road — it was more like a rural highway. And there’s a lot of people, a lot of homes — in the trees up there and all over that valley — that didn’t used to be there 20 years ago.”

Amid the Uinta and Wasatch mountains, Summit County does have four interstates and five state highways that can provide exit routes for evacuees — although some roads like Guardsman Pass are only open seasonally.

“On the one hand, we’re well connected, and we have lots of alternate options,” McMullin said. “However, I could not even imagine to say which community would be the hardest [to evacuate]. They all have issues.”

Although Park City has grown over the years, the town has limited roads that provide exit and entrance to the area — a facet perhaps most obvious in the winter, amid an annual influx of ski traffic.

McComb said officials don’t have specific evacuation routes identified due to the unpredictable nature of wildfires, but they do have an evacuation plan in place that residents can view on the city’s emergency website.

“Our plan is designed to be flexible, scalable and adaptable,” McComb said. “We felt like getting ourselves tied into ‘Hey, this is a defined route,’ is kind of setting us up for a lot of confusion, because it may be that route is blocked or threatened by fire, and we don’t want people going that way.”

The resort town is hosting a full-scale evacuation exercise on September 28. McComb encouraged residents who want to become more familiar with the area’s emergency management plans to attend.

“We really appreciate all the preparedness efforts and outreach that happen in the county,” McMullin said, “and we look forward to just continuing that relationship with our residents and working to build a community that is resilient.”