Crews were making slow, steady progress in containing several active wildfires in northern and central Utah heading into the Labor Day weekend.
The largest, the lightning-sparked Tank Hollow Fire, had scorched 4,710 acres of timber, grass and brush in Spanish Fork Canyon as of Friday. Ignited during thunderstorms that rolled through the region on Aug. 11, the blaze was 40 percent contained, said Fire Information Officer Jason Curry.
Full containment was not expected until Oct. 15. Crews were letting the flames burn with the fire’s interior, while working to extend and strengthen fire lines on the perimeters.
The fire was being fought by some 275 personnel about 20 miles east of the community of Spanish Fork and north of U.S. 6. The blaze has not caused an injuries or burned any homes, but it did threaten remote electrical lines early on.
Meanwhile, the Skull Valley Fire, which flared due to lightning early Tuesday morning, had burned nearly 1,300 acres of scrub oak and grasslands in eastern Tooele County, roughly 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.
The Skull Valley Fire was 90 percent contained on Friday with no injuries or structural losses reported.
The human-caused Bountiful-Summerwood Fire was 50 percent contained, having burned 56 acres of scrub oak, brush and grass on steep, rugged terrain southeast of Bountiful in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest.