Two small wildfires began burning in different parts of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest Tuesday, including one on the very top of Mt. Olympus looking over Salt Lake City.
The Mt. Olympus fire was first reported at about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday and had only burned about one-tenth of an acre by Tuesday evening, according to U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Kim Osborn.
Osborn said the fire likely was caused by a lightning strike from thunderstorms that battered the region last week. Often, fires caused by a strike can smolder for a few days before erupting into something more visible, Osborn said.
The forest service will send a four-person crew to work on containing the fire on Wednesday morning, she said.
Further north, the Aspen Fire began burning sometime around 6 a.m. Tuesday in the Naomi Peak wilderness area east of Richmond. The fire was burning in Douglas and subalpine fir and had been giving off a lot of smoke Tuesday evening, but had so far consumed only a quarter of an acre. The cause of the Aspen fire was under investigation Tuesday. Osborn said a five-person crew had hiked in to reach the blaze and began working on containing it.
With both fires, however, people should expect to see large amounts of smoke over the next couple of days, Osborn warned.
kbennion@sltrib.com
Twitter: @KimballBennion