Human-caused wildfire burns at least 5 acres near Kanarraville

Smoke from a wildfire near Kanarraville, Utah, July 6, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

KANARRAVILLE — A human-caused wildfire burned five acres of brush alongside a steep hill just south of Kanarraville on Wednesday evening.

A Type 1 helicopter drops a load of water on a wildfire near Kanarraville, Utah, July 6, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

Mike Melton, area fire management officer for Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, said the blaze was first reported at about 5:14 p.m.

Less than two hours later, the fire’s progression had been stopped, although numerous hot spots remained within the burned area.

“The cliff really helped out on the right flank,” Melton told Cedar City News via phone just after 7 p.m. Wednesday. “We flanked it with engines and then the state Type 1 helicopter knocked down the head and some of the places that were really hard to reach. But yeah, a successful stop here.”

The Utah Fire Info website initially had the acreage mapped out at 5.0 acres, but Melton said that number could change, pending more precise GPS measurements.

“We’ll get a decent acreage on it a bit later,” he said. 

A couple days later, the final size of the fire ended up measuring at 9.5 acres.

Melton said the blaze is suspected to have been started by an individual cutting metal with a gas-powered saw, an activity that’s in violation of current fire restrictions.

A Type 1 helicopter drops a load of water on a wildfire near Kanarraville, Utah, July 6, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

The person received a citation, Melton added.

In addition to the Type 1 helicopter, two single engine air tankers also responded to the incident, along with an air attack platform airplane to coordinate the airspace. 

Firefighting resources and crews also were deployed from the Kanarraville, New Harmony and Cedar City fire departments, along with Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

“Parowan and Paragonah (also) showed up for a little while,” Melton added. “We determined that we didn’t need them, so we sent them back. But we thank them for their response, for sure.”

Melton said as of 7 p.m., crews were putting more water on the still-smoldering hot spots.

“We’ll be mopping up for quite some time now,” he added.

Update July 11, 11:50 p.m. to indicate the final size of the burned area was measured at 9.5 acres.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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