The Dollar Ridge Fire was reported around 1 p.m. on July 1, 2018. Responding resources made initial attack and the fire spread quickly in steep terrain and high winds. Overnight the fire had grown to 7,000 acres. The cause is believed to be due to human activity and is under investigation to determine the actual cause. The blaze is located 4.5 miles southeast of Strawberry Reservoir and approximately 50 miles southeast of Provo. By Tuesday the fire had exploded to 30,000 acres and fire officials have confirmed that structures have been lost to the blaze. Hot, dry conditions and wind gusts up to 40 mph are forecast which will make firefighting even more difficult and will cause the fire to spread. There is no containment of the fire at this point. The evacuation orders from Monday remain in effect which impacts up to 300 homes.
This natural-color satellite image was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite on July 02, 2018. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS’s thermal bands, are outlined in red. Even with the heavy cloud cover in this image, the brownish-colored smoke rising from the fires is still very visible in this satellite image. NASA image courtesy NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) project. Caption: Lynn Jenner with information from Inciweb.