MIDWAY, Utah — This summer has been one of the worst wildfire seasons in state history.
It’s why fire restrictions have been in place since June for many parts of the state.
However, after heavy rains and cooler temperatures, many state parks now have reduced or rescinded fire restrictions, just in time for the unofficial end of the summer.
For 36 years, the Ainge family Labor Day weekend always begins the same way.
"Most of us don’t camp except for this time of year … it’s something to do together, we believe in traditions and this is a great tradition,” said Aale Ainge, who lives in South Jordan.
A tradition that also always ends the same way.
“Sitting around in a circle, we’ll have thirty people or so here, and just talking,” said Ainge.
But this year’s getaway almost didn’t have a happy ending.
"Very worried about whether we were going to be able to have a fire or not, but we would’ve came up anyway,” said Ainge.
They were worried because since the start of this summer, different parts of the state were place under different levels of fire restrictions.
But on midnight Friday, their worries melted away.
"Campers are allowed to have those open flame fires while they’re out recreating over the weekend,” said Wes Hutchinson, a Wasatch County Fire Battalion Chief.
Given this wildfire season, firefighters still urge caution since there is still a high risk to lighting a fire. Just earlier today, we shared with you that a wildfire broke out in Carbon County's Range Creek.
“There’s still very high potential and we want people to know just because those restrictions are lifted, the fire danger is still extremely high,” said Hutchinson.
Utah Wildfires
Fire restrictions set to drop across almost all of Utah
But with these reduced restrictions, a lighter and wood, bring to life a time-honored tradition.
“Thirty years, we’re all getting older now, right? So, who knows how many more years and hopefully our children will carry it on, so right now everyone of these is important to us, so we’re very excited about keeping the tradition going,” said Ainge.
