KANOSH, Utah — There are burned trees as far as you can see and scorched earth on the ground. The smell of smoke lingers in the air.
This is the aftermath of the Widemouth 2 Fire, a megafire that's now more than 129,000 acres in size and still burning. But while firefighters continue to fight the massive wildfire, communities that were once in the path of the flames are now preparing for a new catastrophe: flash floods.
Monsoon storms are moving in and bringing the potential for heavy rain over burn-scarred areas, carrying mud and debris into communities. It's already happened at another nearby megafire — the Cottonwood Fire, which threatened Beaver and was then devastated by flooding.
In Kanosh, town council member Josh Whitaker showed FOX 13 News what his community was doing to prepare.
"What we’re doing is cutting trees down, getting rid of the large part of the debris and leaving the root ball to help stabilize those banks," he said, pointing to burned trees that had been cut down and gathered into piles on higher ground.
The fire was bad enough for communities like Kanosh, but the floods are something else.
"With the floods, we’re not just looking at a one-time occurrence, but every time it rains we’re going to be watching how it’s coming down. We’re looking at years for burn scars to heal and hold back more water," Whitaker told FOX 13 News.
The area where the fire hit is sensitive for Kanosh. It is also part of the community's watershed. Work is being done to protect it and ensure residents don't lose drinking water.
"What we’re looking at doing is making sure we control the flow of the water and not have too much debris coming that jams us up down below," Whitaker said. "We can move it through our dam, disperse water around town in a safe manner and protect people and property."
Community leaders in Kanosh said they feel like they are ready, but acknowledge it's unknown how bad storms will be. On Wednesday, Millard County Sheriff Steve O'Camb told FOX 13 News "so far, so good" when it came to rains that moved over the area.
The Widemouth 2 fire spans 30 miles from Kanosh up to Fillmore (work has been done to protect Cove Fort to the south and I-70 is a worst-case scenario for a fire break). Other communities are making similar preparations. In Fillmore, canals were being cleared of debris and jersey barricades were installed alongside them to help direct water.
On Wednesday, residents in Meadow were picking up sandbags for their homes.
"My house is kind of in a bad spot but like, it hasn’t been bad with flooding yet because we haven’t gotten much rain," said Carl Penney. "That’s been good. The fire sucked."
But people have rallied to help these communities. Whitaker said nearby towns have sent people to help sandbag and provide resources, which they're grateful for. Sandbags came from as far away as Provo.
Firefighters report progress on the Widemouth 2 Fire itself. On Wednesday, the Great Basin 2 Team which is overseeing the emergency response said it had achieved 50% containment.
"Crews have made really great progress building a containment line from Kanosh all the way up here to Fillmore on the north end," said Karl Hunt, a spokesperson for the team. "They continue to do work on the eastern side of the fire as well. That’s been an area of concern. We’ve had some activity but the weather the last couple of days has helped moderate that."
