The Trail Mountain Wildfire began when the Trail Mountain Prescribed Fire escaped across Cottonwood Canyon Road to East Mountain Wednesday, June 6, 2018. The escaped fire initially burned 300 acres. Late Sunday, June 10, wind gusts of 55 miles per hour pushed the fire northeast into Meetinghouse Canyon. The fire is burning on lands managed by the Manti-La Sal National Forest, Price Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management, and Utah Division of Foresty, Fire and State Lands, and private lands 15 miles northwest of Orangeville, UT. As of today, June 14, the fire is currently at 9,554 acres and is 10% contained.Crews have implemented a full-suppression strategy to contain the fire. Westerly winds will be stronger today, Thursday, June 14, 2018, with gusts 30-35 mph and minimum relative humidity 10-15%. A Red Flag Warning is in effect for today.
Although prescribed fires are used to mitigate fires in the future by ridding the area of excess fuels that could feed a fire started by human error or lightning, sometimes a unexpected weather event can cause the prescribed fire to spread as it did in this case when high winds caused the fire to jump a road and become out of control.
NOAA/NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite collected this natural-color image using the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) instrument on June 13, 2018. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS’s thermal bands, are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC. Caption by Lynn Jenner with information from Inciweb.
Suomi NPP is managed by NASA and NOAA.