Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- The Cottonwood Fire in Beaver County has spread over 70,000 acres, destroying livestock and infrastructure.
- Very light rain in the area did very little to stop the fire.
- Volunteers are aiding responders; a community meeting is scheduled at Beaver High School.
BEAVER — A fast-moving wildfire cutting across Beaver County has killed countless livestock and likely will set the region's timber industry back several decades, a legislator who lives in the region told colleagues on Thursday as the Cottonwood Fire rages on.
The wildfire grew to 70,992 acres by Thursday morning, according to Alyssa Mason, a public information officer for Great Basin Team 5, which is now assigned to fighting the massive blaze.
While some rain fell overnight, officials estimate it was just 0.1 inches across the fire area and wasn't enough to begin any fire containment. The fire — one of many currently raging in the state — might be one of the most destructive blazes in Utah's history, said Gov. Spencer Cox, who was in Beaver on Wednesday.
That's due to the losses at Eagle Point Resort and hundreds of primary and secondary homes in the area.
The fire also burned infrastructure and other recreation areas; it took out livestock and likely impacted wildlife in an area that's vital for agriculture, hunting and fish, too, said Rep. Carl Albrecht, R-Richfield, as he described the scene to his colleagues during a legislative Federalism Commission meeting at the Utah Capitol on Thursday,
"We're in unprecedented territory right now," he said, joining the commission meeting remotely through video conference.
"Ranchers lost cows," he said. "They kind of thought, 'Well, we got a fire on the Beaver side, we got some time here,' but the way that fire moved, they didn't have time. So, a lot of cows were lost, recreation areas, power lines were disrupted; I'm sure a lot of wildlife. That's prime hunting for elk and deer. It's really going to hurt the economies in those two counties for some time."
Most of the fire is within the Beaver snowpack basin, which was one of many in the state that recorded a record-low snowpack this winter, following three straight years of near-normal or above-normal snowpacks, including a record high in 2023, per Natural Resources Conservation Service data.
Other parts of central and southern Utah had back-to-back years of record-low or near-record-low snowpack collections.
That meant years of vegetation growth quickly dried out, especially since the Beaver basin's snowpack reached 0 inches in early May, over a month earlier than normal and weeks earlier than the previous record.
Dry conditions led to the moisture content in trees being "unheard of," causing trees to explode when they spark, Albrecht added.
"Everything is so dry that the trees burn like cheatgrass," he said. "It's unprecedented and very, very scary. Disheartening. I feel bad for the people who have lost businesses, lost family cabins and a lot of memories."
The region likely lost "40 to 50 years" of forest timbering, as well.
Volunteers in Beaver gathered donated supplies Wednesday night for the front-line responders to use while tackling the fire, including food, water and care for eye irritation and ash.
Donations to support the efforts can be posted to the Cottonwood account at the Utah Independent Bank.
A community meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday night at the Beaver High School auditorium to provide an update on the situation.
"We're tough people. We'll get through it," Albrecht said. "This is the fourth fire in my house district in four years."
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