WASHINGTON – The hot and dry weather has some officials worried after yet another human-caused fire in the county this month burned up 10-15 acres of brush just west of Bella Vista Road in Washington City.

Jim Keith, Washington City Public Safety Director, said they received a call just before 1 p.m.

“An individual was working on his fence grinding some rebar,” he said. “A spark caught the field behind there on fire.”

Keith said the person who started the fire called the fire department, and about 8 vehicles and about 20 firefighters from St. George City, Washington City, Hurricane City and Washington County Wildfire worked for just over an hour to put out the flames.  He said no structures were damaged by the flames.

John and Sandi Cavanagh live at 625 E. Siena Drive, and they said they saw smoke that looked like it was coming from behind their home while they were out for lunch.  They drove home to discover the hillside behind their home was on fire.

Sandi Cavanagh said firefighters were still arriving when they got home, and the flames were spread halfway up the hillside.  She said she wasn’t worried about her home though.

“There’s enough rocks between the fuels,” she said.  “Between that and the direction the wind was blowing it wasn’t moving up the hill real fast.”

She said the firefighters were efficient and had plenty of opportunity to control the flames before any damage to buildings was caused.

“The city did a great job of taking care of it, and everyone was very polite,” she said.

Keith said he urges citizens to recognize the fire dangers caused by the hot, dry weather and to be careful about using tools that produce sparks, open fires and fireworks.  He said they will probably be imposing some restrictions on fireworks this year, and he said they appreciate any assistance they can get from the public to keep fire danger at a minimum.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2011, all rights reserved.