Smoke, fires continue to blaze throughout Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — Multiple large fires continued to rage across Utah on Monday, with a total of 342 fires ignited in the state so far during the 2026 fire season and 64,209 acres burned overall, according to Utah Fire Info.

Sierra Hellstrom with the Utah Fire Info, the state's interagency public information resource, said the Bonneville Fire located east of Salt Lake City was at 566 acres and firefighters reached 43% containment on Tuesday morning. She added that crews saw very little activity early Tuesday.

"Containment isn't that the fire hasn't moved, but the fire managers are confident that the fire will not move going forward," Hellstrom said.

While the Bonneville Fire has slowed, other fires around the state continue to start or grow larger.

"I think we're all aware of what's happening in Utah, in other places, as fire season has hit Utah," Hellstrom said. "We've been talking about this all spring of the perfect storm of dry fuels and extreme heat temperatures heating up early, very little winter, so there wasn't a lot of snowpack, and we knew that this was coming."

Hellstrom said that with the Bonneville Fire slowing down, crews were made available to fight other priority fires in Utah, such as the Iron Fire located northwest of Eureka.

By Tuesday morning, the Iron Fire had burned at 31,314 acres and 9% containment, according to a Utah Fire Info update on Facebook. Evacuations remained in effect for Eureka, Chimney Rock Pass and the affected surrounding areas. Road closures were also in effect due to the Iron Fire. Road closures included U.S. Highway 6 between Elberta and Eureka.

On Monday morning, two crews that helped fight the Bonneville Fire were sent to the Cottonwood Fire in Beaver County, according to Hellstrom. The Cottonwood Fire grew to over 10,000 acres overnight after starting on Monday afternoon. The fire led to a mandatory evacuation for Eagle Point, Merchant Valley, HiLo Estates, Arrowhead Summer Homes and surrounding areas.

The Dutchman Fire also started on Monday in Utah County. That fire was listed to be at 80 acres on the Utah Fire Info website. Hellstrom said one crew was sent to help fight the Dutchman Fire on Monday night at about 10 p.m.

"The one good thing about us gaining containment here on (the Bonneville Fire), one of the many good things I should say, is that we have the ability to start to share resources that we have locally available," Hellstrom said.

Two crews were also kept on the Bonneville Fire with multiple engines still up doing structure protection. Utah Fire Info said a reevaluation would take place at the end of Monday to determine whether crews need to remain at the Bonneville Fire or if additional resources can be shared.

Smoky skies

Hellstrom said 12 larger fires were active within the Great Basin, which includes Utah, Nevada, southern Idaho and western Wyoming.

"We are one of the most active areas in the United States right now, with half of those, six of those are here in Utah, of those larger fires" she said. "So we're really hitting fire season here in Utah. It came on strong, as we thought it would."

With all those fires, a lot of smoke has settled in the Salt Lake Valley, which Hellstrom said the Utah Fire Info was fully aware of.

"We're almost surrounded here in Salt Lake with fires at this time, and while most of them are not imminently impacting the area, the smoke will continue to do so."

She said people should take necessary precautions with smoke in the area, such as choosing not to jog or exercise outdoors.

People with sensitive health issues should stay indoors, wear masks, and use air filters and purifiers as necessary, according to Hellstrom.

"Thankfully, even though the smoke isn't a great thing in the area, it actually does create a shade over the fire so that the sun doesn't directly expose the ground and heat it up quick," Hellstrom said. "So, there's a pro and con to having smoke in the area."

Preventing a wildfire

Holiday weekends are a time when Utah starts to see an increase in human-caused fires, according to Hellstrom. She said she's heard and seen a lot of people being skeptical of how many fires started all at once.

"Moving into the holiday season is one of the scariest times in Utah," Hellstrom said. "That actually tends to be when fire season really starts here in Utah. We're a couple weeks ahead of that just because of the winter that we had, or lack thereof."

She said a lot of people can be unaware of how often fires start.

"We are responding to initial attack fires consistently all the time, every day," Hellstrom said. "Most of the time we are able to catch those and stop those so you just don't ever see or hear about those fires."

When it comes to fireworks in Utah, Hellstrom advised people to follow whatever their local ordinance says and check those laws before lighting fireworks. Make sure you're not around dry vegetation and have buckets of water handy. It won't take much to start a wildfire.

Here's a helpful map: Fireworks are illegal in the areas SHOWN IN RED until July 2. (HINT: It's ILLEGAL EVERYWHERE in Utah right now) We're counting on law enforcement agencies throughout the state to strictly enforce state law. #ffsljcpic.twitter.com/H2BLtUFTLG

— Utah Fire Info (@UtahWildfire) June 30, 2020

"Moving into it, as always, fireworks are illegal on public lands, forest service, bureau of land management, park service lands," Hellstrom said. "They also are illegal to shoot off in most of the state out of a three-day window around the fourth of July and the 24th of July."

Altogether, it's best for people to stay out of the areas around fires so firefighters can do their job, she advised, adding that drones are of rising concern.

"We actually have some of the worst numbers for drone incursions in the United States and that's not a number we're proud of," she said, adding that firefighters have drone-detection capabilities and do catch people who use drones around fires.

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