A fast-moving wildfire in Utah raced across the region overnight, fed by heat and dry wind and forcing more communities to evacuate, officials said Saturday.
Wind gusts clocked in at 45 miles per hour and humidity levels were in the single digits, leaving crews grounded with few options for slowing Cottonwood Fire – the largest blaze currently burning in the U.S – and its fast-moving flames.
The U.S. Forest Service said Saturday that weather conditions are expected to slightly improve, but not by much.
“Weather conditions are slightly better for fire behavior today, but extreme fire behavior may occur in the afternoon as temperatures and wind speeds increase,” the U.S. Forest Service said in a statement on Facebook.
Ty ONeil / AP Photo
The Cottonwood Fire in a sparsely populated area of southern Utah started Monday. One of six large wildfires burning in Utah, it severely damaged the Eagle Point ski resort in Beaver County, forcing mandatory evacuations.
Utah wildfires “defy historical expectations,” state forester says
As of Saturday afternoon, Utah had 10 active wildfires burning across more than 172,000 acres, according to the state’s wildfire dashboard. The Cottonwood Fire had burned over 92,000 acres and is at 0% containment.
The smoke has been pushing to the east and northeast, meaning air quality at popular vacation spots like Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks — located far south of the flames — hasn’t been significantly affected beyond some haze in the Bryce area. Still, visitors to Bryce have posted videos on social media showing the giant plume in the distance.
The smoke could be seen for hundreds of miles, all the way to Colorado, as authorities put roughly 1,300 residents in the towns of Marysvale, Junction and Circleville on notice that they should be prepared to leave if conditions worsen and the fire pushes farther.
State forester Jamie Barnes had said Thursday that it’s like nothing seen in recent memory. She said fires are spreading farther and faster “under conditions that defy historical expectations.”
AP Photo/Ty ONeil 
Bruce Brown, 76, accompanied the sheriff on Thursday to find that his cabin and others in the area were gone. He found a burned-out moonscape with power poles tipped over along the canyon.
Alyssa Olsen, 27, said her family’s cabin also burned. It was the last place they gathered for family photos with her grandmother before she died of cancer. Her brother was planning to get married there in two months.
“That stuff you can’t just build back,” Olsen said.
No injuries or deaths have been reported, said Jaclynn Swope, a spokesperson for the response team.
The National Weather Service said in March that Salt Lake City, Utah’s capital, had the warmest winter on record with an average temperature of 40.7 degrees Fahrenheit, nearly 8 degrees above normal. Many other parts of Utah had a warmer-than-usual winter.
Utah governor restricts July 4th fireworks
Gov. Spencer Cox set the temporary fireworks restrictions through July 5 as the nation prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, saying “this year is different.”
The weather service in Salt Lake City, for the first time in the office’s history, issued a “Particularly Dangerous Situation” warning for five Utah counties, including the area of the Cottonwood Fire. The rare alert was first used to warn of tornado conditions. A red flag warning was also issued for most of the state.
“Prepare now for rapid fire growth,” it said.
A similar “dangerous situation” warning had been issued for the 2025 Palisades Fire in Los Angeles. A federal judge declared a mistrial Friday in the arson case against Jonathan Rinderknecht, the man accused of sparking that fire. The jury said it couldn’t agree on a verdict.
While the Cottonwood Fire’s cause was unknown, Cox’s order noted that humans have been the cause of most fires in the state so far this year. Utah has seen 376 wildfires this year, and 273 of those were caused by humans, according to Utah’s wildfire data.
The governor’s order gives Barnes power to restrict or prohibit fireworks displays in Utah’s cities and towns, instead of leaving those decisions to the communities.
Mike McMillan/U.S. Forest Service via AP 
With extreme fire conditions persisting, Rocky Mountain Power issued a public safety power shut-off watch/warning for areas of central, southern and eastern Utah through the weekend.
Crews were also battling the Iron Fire southwest of Salt Lake City. The flames on Thursday forced the temporary evacuation of Eureka, population 1,000.
Red flag warnings, which mean conditions such as low humidity, warm temperatures and strong winds can create an extreme wildfire risk, extended into Saturday and stretched from Idaho to southern Arizona and New Mexico. The worst conditions were expected from northern Arizona into central and southern Utah.
Much of Utah already is experiencing severe to extreme drought, while parts of Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico are experiencing severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Tim Brown, a research professor and director of the Western Regional Climate Center, said the potential for extreme fire behavior will remain as long as it’s hot, dry and windy.
“I would not be surprised to see a lot of restrictions come out as we get closer to the July Fourth weekend,” he said. “People really need to be aware of their surroundings if they’re going to be out in the forested campground areas and grassland areas.”
Even in Florida, where there have been multiple brush fires, authorities are urging people to skip the personal fireworks and instead leave the pyrotechnics to professionals putting on carefully planned shows.
In Utah, federal land managers have closed public lands near the Cottonwood Fire as a precaution, and in New Mexico, forest officials closed campgrounds and trails near a wildfire burning in the Jemez Mountains.
Nationally, nearly 3 million acres have burned since the start of the year, pushing the U.S. ahead of the 10-year average. The National Interagency Fire Center said firefighters are making progress on containing fires from Alaska to Florida.
