The Iron fire in Utah’s Juab County was first detected Saturday and by Sunday had blackened more than 2,000 acres about 70 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The fire forced the evacuation of the town of Eureka, a community of roughly 1,000 residents, as well as people at a nearby ranch.
No homes had been lost as of Sunday, according to Utah Fire Info, a multi-agency operation. In a post on X, the agency said firefighters completed a successful operation to protect the town.
Kelly Wickens, a fire prevention specialist with the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, warned that the fire was continuing to grow. “We knew that there was going to be extreme fire danger, and sure enough we had multiple fires,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Sunday after visiting Eureka. Wickens said the fire is human-caused and remains under investigation.
The Iron fire was one of six blazes burning in Utah at varying levels of containment, according to officials.
In neighboring Colorado, the National Weather Service issued a red-flag warning for the southwest corner of the state through Monday, citing gusty winds and low relative humidity that create favorable conditions for wildfires. In Arizona, a wildfire near Sedona prompted evacuations over the weekend. The fire, burning about 300 acres of steep terrain near Oak Creek Canyon, remained uncontained as of Sunday afternoon, and evacuated residents were not yet allowed to return.
The wildfires coincide with a heat wave across much of the American Southwest. Parts of southern California were under an extreme heat advisory, according to the Los Angeles Times. Temperatures in Carlsbad, New Mexico, were forecast to reach 108°F (42.2°C) on Sunday. Much of Utah is experiencing severe to extreme drought, while parts of Arizona and Colorado are in severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Extreme heat has already claimed lives in the region. Last week, three hikers died in two separate incidents in the Grand Canyon, where temperatures have been consistently high.
Meanwhile, a brush fire in Miami-Dade County, Florida, spread across 2,000 acres on Saturday, further illustrating the broad fire danger across the country.