Utah under historic ‘red flag’ weather warning amid dangerous wildfires

Utah governor Spencer Cox has announced a state of emergency and accompanying temporary prohibition on the use of personal fireworks until 5 July. The announcement comes as the state experiences an unprecedented wildfire season with blazes that have prompted evacuations in Eureka, a small town about 80 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Under the governor’s executive order, the state forester is allowed to ban the use of fireworks anywhere in the state. The order temporarily suspends a 2024 law that disallowed the forester from banning fireworks in cities across the state.

“It’s not about taking decisions away from local communities. In fact, we want to put local knowledge at the center of this process,” Cox said during a Thursday press conference.

He added that while the state’s default position is that fireworks are prohibited, local fire chiefs and officials can still designate places where fireworks are allowed, if the hot, dry and windy conditions that are fueling the fires allow for it.

“We think this strikes the right balance,” Cox said.

As of Friday, Utah had nine active wildfires burning across more than 143,000 acres, according to the state’s wildfire dashboard. So far this year, Utah has had 373 wildfires. All but 100 of them have been caused by humans.

Among the current blazes is the Cottonwood fire, which officials discovered on Monday and was described by Cox as the most destructive fire in the state’s history. So far, it has burned nearly 72,000 acres and is at 0% containment, according to Utah fire info. It has also forced the closure of Eagle point ski resort and damaged several structures surrounding it.

On the same day that the fireworks prohibition was announced, Salt Lake City’s national weather service declared a “particularly dangerous situation red flag warning”, the first in the service’s history, according to a post on X.

In addition to struggling to tamp down new ignitions, billowing smoke continues to blanket surrounding areas. And smoke columns remain high enough to be seen from around the state, affecting air quality at popular vacation spots such as Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks – located far south of the flames.

More fire danger is expected as a heat wave blankets the West Coast of the US, with troubling conditions for states like Colorado and Arizona.

The Guardian wp:paragraph