PINE VALLEY, Utah — Firefighters battling the Forsyth Fire in Pine Valley told FOX 13 News that they got their first big break in the last 24 hours on Monday, thanks to a small increase in humidity and the dying winds.
While the size of the fire grew to 7,045 acres overnight and continued to expand throughout the day, the number of homes destroyed remained steady at 13.
As of 5 p.m., the fire is still 0% contained.
WATCH BELOW: Community town hall meeting held Monday evening
"We know it's grown today because it is windy still. Firefighters have been working trying to get containment line around it, looking for places where they can get containment line in this terrain," Candy Stevenson from Great Basin Incident Management Team 7 said.
Longtime Pine Valley resident's home safe for now as neighbors, friends lose theirs to Forsyth Fire:
The smoke from the fire was mostly a white haze with hillsides covered in a pinkish fire retardant that was dropped during Sunday's air attacks. Firefighters have succeeded in keeping the worst of the flames in the rugged canyons where they can do the least damage, and fewer structures are located.
Five divisions of firefighters are currently in the fire zone, one specifically to protect structures.
In the last 24 hours, fire breaks around a local equestrian campground and cabin on the eastern side of Pine Valley have been burned, reducing fuel that can burn if the wildfire reaches that point.
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Law enforcement is adamantly keeping unauthorized people out of the fire zone.
"We don't want to have people in there and have a search and rescue operation on top of the firefighting," Stevenson said.
