Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
KAMAS — Officials overseeing the Yellow Lake Fire hosted a public meeting Sunday at Kamas Middle School to provide the latest information on the fire.
Fire managers told people they have several crews on scene — both on the ground and in the air. In a press release from the U.S. Forest Service Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, residents of Hanna, in Duchesne County, are being urged to be ready to get out in case conditions change.
"People see the smoke, they know something's going on," said Deanna Younger, California Incident Management Team public information officer. "They've got questions, they've got houses, they've got properties, they got businesses, and they want to know what's going on."
Current evacuations
Currently, the North and West Forks of the Duchesne river, as well as the Granddaddy Lakes area have been told to evacuate. However, that's mostly for campers and anyone with cabins in those areas.
Fortunately, no homes or buildings have been damaged by the fire.
Still, the Yellow Lake Fire continues to grow and move. As of Sunday evening, the fire had grown to 30,608 acres and was 23% contained, according to Utah Fire Info.
"We've got five scooper planes, we've got a lot of helicopters, we've got crews and we've got top-notch operations managers that are used to this, and we are throwing everything at it," Younger said.
On Saturday, officials said winds from the south pushed the fire boundary across the popular Soapstone Basin area of the Mirror Lake Highway toward Iron Mine Road.
Curtis Coots, Yellow Lake Fire incident commander, told KSL-TV that the cloud cover helped Sunday in the efforts to contain the fire.
"You know, we're not looking bad," he said. "We haven't had any aggressive runs over the last four days due to the cloud over, so that's really helped out a lot. A lot of the smoke you're seeing is predominantly internal. But, we do have some spots that definitely we've got some work to do on the north side and the east side that continue to hamper our efforts."
There are roughly 850 individuals helping fight the fire. The fire has been burning for two weeks and is human-caused.
Weather issues
Coots said natural disasters elsewhere have been challenging to work around.
"We've got hurricanes going on back east and then we have fires out here in the west, and so trying to find that balance with resources has been somewhat difficult," he said.
Another challenge has been the warm weather.
"It's been so dry and on top of that, here we are in October," said Kamas resident Bob Lewis. "It's supposed to snowing, isn't it?"
Lewis said he hasn't seen weather like this in decades.
"Other years we've been skiing already, but it's been like 80 degrees here in the valley," he said.
Officials are hoping for some relief soon.
"By Friday it may be 20 degrees, we may get a little bit of snow on the mountain, we may get none," Younger said.
Lewis said he's confident in the crews fighting this fire, but he's wary of what it can do.
"We need to keep an eye on it so it doesn't show up in Tabiona or Kamas or wherever," he said.
Another public meeting will be held Monday in Tabiona at 6 p.m. It will be livestreamed.
