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They don't call them "wild" fires for nothing. Just ask the firefighters who were scrambling Thursday after the flames of the Pinyon Wildfire had jumped containment lines to threaten the southwestern Salt Lake County community of Herriman overnight.
The lightning-sparked blaze had been mostly contained to the Utah National Guard's Camp Williams, where crews focused on hemming in the fire burning in sage, grass, pinyon and juniper and keeping it from spreading into a remote artillery range impact zone where potentially thousands of dud shells pose an explosive risk. But late Wednesday afternoon, the fiery tide turned.
Though no evacuations were ordered, Herriman city officials were on alert after embers from a flare-up floated outside fire lines and ignited tinder-dry vegetation. By Thursday afternoon, the Pinyon Fire, which crews had thought they had halted at about 3,000 acres mid-day Wednesday, had grown to 5,684 acres.
Fire Information Officer Kim Osborn, who had put containment of the blaze at 40 percent before the flare-up, said crews Thursday were essentially starting over with only 10 percent of the revived fire considered contained. About 240 firefighters, along with helicopters and two C-130 air tankers bombing hot spots with water and fire retardant mud, were battling the flames on Thursday. By the late evening, the fire was 30 percent contained.
"Things picked up some this afternoon. The fire is more active as the winds have been kicking up a little bit, as we expected," Osborn said Thursday. "But we're doing pretty good so far, with all our crews and equipment out."
The fire had stopped moving toward Herriman, but firefighters there remained on standby, ready to respond if flames once more approached their town, and residents had been alerted to be ready should evacuations be ordered.
The fire began Sunday, burning 7 buildings of a mock Afghan village on the military installation's training grounds and forcing a since-lifted evacuation of dozens of homes in nearby Eagle Mountain earlier this week.
The 22,616-acre Faust Wildfire, burning in high desert range nine miles northwest of the Tooele County town of Vernon, was 45 percent contained late Thursday night. Fire Information Officer Cami Lee said about 150 firefighters hoped to have that lightning-caused blaze completely hemmed in on Sunday.
No homes were threatened and no injuries had been reported, but Lee said cattle grazing on the Bureau of Land Management, state and private land were at risk.
In Washington County, the West Mountain Wildfire was fully contained at 3:30 p.m. after having burned 2,458 acres. It, too, was begun by lightning, last Saturday. No structures were threatened there, according to Fire Information Officer Nick Howell.
Meanwhile, the Royal Castle Wildfire had burned 100 acres in Carbon County's Crandall Canyon. Located near State Road 6, the blaze led county officials to clear campers from the Price Recreation Area.
Lightning was also being blamed for a new fire about two miles northwest of the Washington County town of Enterprise. The Pyramid 2 Wildfire — so named because it started Wednesday near the earlier Pyramid Fire — was 50 percent contained at 60 acres.