Crews near containment of several Utah wildfires

A mountain brush fire that briefly threatened several Centerville homes late Monday night was fully contained by Tuesday afternoon.

U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Kathy Jo Pollock said firefighters contained the blaze about 2:15 p.m. The fire burned about 20 acres in the foothills above the Davis County town.

Centerville police are considering seeking possible charges against four target shooters believed to have sparked the blaze. The four reportedly called 911 when they saw the flames erupt and tried themselves to put out the fire before crews arrived. The shooters had been firing at clay pigeons.

Three homes were voluntarily evacuated early on during the fire, but no structures were lost and no injuries reported.

Meanwhile, about 360 firefighters — backed up by several water-bearing helicopters and bulldozers — expected to fully contain by late Tuesday the 2,018-acre Box Creek Fire. It was burning in mixed conifer and aspen forests about five miles northwest of Greenwich and some 35 miles southeast of Richfield and Fishlake National Forest.

The fire was 85 percent contained at dawn Tuesday. Its growth had stalled and crews expected to have little difficulty closing the remaining mile of fire containment lines.

Firefighters had reached 82 percent containment of the nearly 2,075-acre Lost Lake Fire, which was burning in timber and grass southwest of Teasdale, a Wayne County town roughly mid-way between the Dixie and Fishlake National forests. More than 430 firefighters expected to reach full containment of the human-caused blaze by Saturday.

The Copper Mountain Fire, burning east of the Pilo Mountains off Highway 30 along the Nevada-Utah border, had blackened 1,200 acres. The cause of that fire, which began Saturday and was 40 percent contained on Tuesday, remained under investigation, according to Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Cami Lee.

Two other, smaller wildfires in east-central Utah were being monitored by state, BLM and Bureau of Indian Affairs crews, but otherwise were being allowed to burn in remote, steep and rugged terrain: the 150-acre Wild Horse Canyon Fire, in the San Rafael Swell region, and the Cherry Fire, in the Range Creek area, which had burned 25 acres as of Tuesday.

remims@sltrib.com —

Davis County Sheriff's Office warns shooters

The Davis County Sheriff's Office asks target shooters to exercise caution when shooting. Citizens should shoot only in designated areas, such as shooting ranges, as opposed to areas with dry grasses and fuel for fires. If you shoot in an unsafe location and start a fire, you may be charged with a crime and responsible for any damages, officials said.