MARYSVALE, Piute County — A storm cell settled over a portion of the Silver King fire area to the southeast Friday, forcing crews to contend with wind up to 45 mph, according to an update released Saturday morning.
What started as a lightning strike on July 5 has grown to 16,745 acres, with 660 personnel managing to achieve 2% containment so far, according to Utah Fire Info.
The wind changed directions nine times Friday, putting a stop to air support for some of the day, the release states, and a warning has been issued for another bout of high winds Saturday that will blow smoke into Richfield and Salina, possibly reaching unhealthy levels.
From the beginning, crews have worked to provide structure protection to the multiple historic mining structures in the Old Kimberly Mining District being threatened by the blaze, but Friday Utah Fire Info reports two structures in Miners Park have burned, along with the historic Bully Boy gold mill.
Residents of the nearby Marysvale, still reeling from the transformation of the picturesque mountain vistas into a swath of blackened hillside, are now forced to look into the future.
Town officials, along with the Utah Department of Emergency Management, are strongly recommending locals “consider obtaining flood insurance as soon as possible.”
A social media post from Marysvale has warned that residents now face “a substantial and immediate risk of major flooding from microbursts and monsoon storms.”
“The burnt watershed will increase flood risk from debris flows and increase stream velocity,” the post says, “not only in the immediate monsoon but also in the coming years of spring runoff, and are likely to be of greatly increased volume compared to the flooding we have seen in the last decade.”
Fire crews are expecting some scattered showers, but the moist conditions will also bring the possibility of dry lightning and erratic winds, according to Utah Fire Info.
A large portion of the Beaver Ranger District in Fishlake National Forest remains closed south of I-70.