With an eerie yellow tint caused by smoke from the Cottonwood Fire leaking through the windows of City Hall, Mayor Joette Langianese banned the use of personal fireworks within Moab city limits at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
The emergency declaration came in the middle of a discussion on a somewhat related matter following an announcement that fire restrictions on public lands and unincorporated private lands in Utah will move to stage 2 on Friday — meaning no open flames are allowed anywhere — including at campsites with a fire ring.
Clark Maughan, Wildland Division chief at the MVFD, was part of that discussion when it was announced stage 2 fire restrictions would take effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday. When asked by Langianese if “the experts at MVFD would support the fireworks ban,” Maughan agreed.
Langianese then polled each member of the council and all agreed the prudent thing to do would be to impose the ban, citing current fires burning throughout the state and excessively dry conditions in southeastern Utah.
Police Chief Lex Bell said his officers would be able to enforce the ban, according to City Manager Michael Black.
The impetus for the ban came during a discussion to consider an interlocal agreement with MVFD regarding wildfire responses. During that discussion, Maughan referenced the smoke-filled sky above Moab and the conditions on the ground that allowed the Cottonwood Fire to grow so large so fast. It had been burning for about 24 hours just south of Beaver and had already grown to roughly 25,000 acres. It had increased to 30,000 acres by Wednesday morning.
After Utah’s record-low snowpack and an unusually early spring runoff, conditions are ripe for wildfire. Maughan said, based on a reading of weather stations placed throughout southeastern Utah, things are “powder dry and fire fuels are at a critical level.” As of Tuesday, June 23, it had been 25 days since there had been any measurable rain anywhere in southeastern Utah and that red flag warnings had been issued on 15 out of 23 days so far in the month of June.
City Councilor Jason Taylor asked if lighting fireworks constituted an “open flame” and there was apparent consensus that it does.
The emergency declaration went into effect after legal counsel advised Langianese that the council did not have to vote on the matter.
Langianese said the Independence Day fireworks show would take place.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) A plane makes a drop on the Cottonwood Fire, burning east of Beaver on Tuesday, June 23, 2026.
Utah and the West are burning again
According to today’s June 24 report from the National Interagency Fire Center, there are six large fires burning in Utah. A large fire is one that burns at least 100 acres of timber or 300 acres of grasslands — a threshold that triggers the need for an incident command team to coordinate the response.
Those fires are the Cottonwood Fire, which has significantly degraded air quality across the region. It is burning near Beaver and is 0% contained. Evacuations have taken place at and around Eagle Point.
The Hastings Fire in remote Tooele County south of Interstate 80 has burned over 20,000 acres and was 25% contained.
The Bonneville Fire burning in the foothills above Salt Lake City was about 40% contained.
The Middle Fork Fire is burning near Huntsville in northern Utah and the Steamboat Fire burns near Steamboat Mountain in Iron County.
The Iron Fire is the largest of the six, burning more than 37,000 acres as of Tuesday in parts of Juab, Utah and Tooele counties. It originated near the town of Eureka, which was evacuated.
“Wildfire activity continues across multiple geographic areas,” reads the report from the Fire Center. “Yesterday, 81 new fires were reported nationwide, including three new large fires. Currently, 32 large fires are uncontained, with more than 6,200 personnel assigned to incidents across the country, including four complex incident management teams.”
According to the Fire Center, more than 34,400 fires have burned nearly 2.8 million acres across the country this year. This exceeds the 10-year average “for both fires and acres burned to date.”
There is no relief in sight short-term. Moab’s long-term forecast through early July calls for prolonged heat with daytime temperatures consistently hovering between 95°F and 102°F with little chance of moisture, according to The Weather Channel.
This story was first published by The Times-Independent.