Blistering heat and strong winds Sunday stoked wildfires across the West after three firefighters were killed a day earlier in Colorado while battling a blaze along the state’s border with Utah.
The National Weather Service said wildfire conditions “remain critical” across the Southwest, with risk high in the Four Corners region where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah intersect. The agency warned of “extreme fire behavior” along the Utah-Colorado border, where “rapid fire growth is likely.”
The firefighters were killed and two sustained burn injuries when they were overcome Saturday by flames from fast-moving fires. They deployed emergency protective shelters during the so-called burnover — which occurs when a fire spreads and closes off all escape routes — in Mesa County, the U.S. Interior Department said.
The Wildland Fire Service, created earlier this year to streamline firefighting on public lands, said in a statement that it “stands united” with the Forest Service in grief and “in our unwavering support for the loved ones left behind.”
The names of the firefighters were withheld pending notification to their loved ones, the Interior Department said.
Temperatures in Grand Junction — east of the fire — hit a high of 93 degrees Fahrenheit (34 degrees Celsius) Saturday, with winds gusting to 44 mph (71 kph), according to the National Weather Service.
The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office asked people to evacuate the potential path of the fire and to turn on irrigation water to saturate the land. The federal Bureau of Land Management on Saturday closed public access to lands it manages nearby.
On Sunday, strong winds pushed waves of thick, gray smoke from the fire as it burned through a desolate stretch of scrub and red mesa.
Consecutive days of hot, dry and windy weather fueled fires in Colorado, Utah, Arizona and elsewhere. New fires popped up across the region.
The largest blaze, the Cottonwood Fire, burned out of control in rugged terrain in southwest Utah. It ballooned Sunday to more than 146 square miles (378 square kilometers) after marching through canyons and mountainsides, destroying part of a ski resort. The cause is under investigation.
Firefighters worked on multiple fronts, using bulldozers to scrape away brush and trees to starve the fire of fuel.
No estimates of damage were immediately available. Gov. Spencer Cox in a post on social media thanked crews for what he called “several miraculous stops and saves.”
The danger is even higher this year because of Utah’s record-low snowpack and its warmest winter on record. Much of the West is grappling with similar conditions, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Some 12 fires were burning in Utah. None were contained by late afternoon Sunday