FILLMORE, Utah — Betty and Craig Bartholomew walked out of their home here and looked at the giant plume of smoke nearby.
"We’re doing well. I mean, you know, we’re cautious," Betty told FOX 13 News.
The couple is down the road from the massive Widemouth 2 Fire and like a lot of Fillmore, has been warned to evacuate should things get worse.
"We’re all ready. If we have to, we can jump in the car and be out in two minutes," Craig said.
On Thursday, Governor Spencer Cox visited the Bartholomews' neighborhood to see up close the megafire that is now estimated to be more than 100,000 acres in size. He offered state support.
"This is impacting a lot of people. This is one of the biggest fires in the nation. This is the third fire to be at over 100,000 acres this year," the governor told reporters as a plume of smoke erupted over his shoulder.
$18 million pledged to help Cottonwood Fire burn scar recovery:
There is some good news to report. Firefighters have managed to protect the communities of Kanosh, Meadow, the lands of the Kanosh Band of the Piute Indian Tribe of Utah and Fillmore.
"The fire has passed so everybody’s just settling back in and still kind of relaxing the nerves," said Gari Lafferty, the tribe's chair. "From what we saw? That was incredible, the fire moving as fast as it is."
But resources are stretched thin. There are about a thousand fewer fires on the Widemouth 2 Fire than there were on the Babylon Fire in southeastern Utah that threatened the communities of Monticello and Blanding. That's because other major fires are now burning in the West.
Gov. Cox pleaded with Utahns to do what they can to not ignite another fire. Last month, he instituted a fireworks ban because of extreme wildfire risk.
"I just need the rest of the state to realize it’s still really bad out there," he said of conditions.
To try to prevent more catastrophic wildfires, Gov. Cox has pushed for better forest management, particularly from the federal government, which owns a lot of land in Utah. He has inked stewardship agreements with the U.S. Forest Service. Accompanying him on a tour of Fillmore and the community of Beaver (that was hit hard by the Cottonwood Fire and subsequent flooding) was U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz.
"We can be more proactive on the management side; we can treat more acres with vegetation treatments, prescribed fires, getting communities prepared for this," Schultz told reporters.
Fillmore Mayor Curt Hare told FOX 13 News he is feeling less anxious about the Widemouth 2 Fire and more worried about what's to come.
"As you can see where the fire is? That is our watershed. We’re concerned about our floodplain. The fire was concerning. The flood risk is years of concern," he said Thursday. "We’re trying to get measures in, so we don’t have to go through with what Beaver went through."
