PINE VALLEY, Utah — The Forsyth Fire mainly stayed in the rugged terrain away from nearby structures in Pine Valley on Tuesday. While it appeared that the wildfire was being held to the same areas as previous days and sits at 8,229 acres, officials said containment remains at 0%.
Candy Stevenson with the Great Basin Incident Management Team said it may be a few more days before there is any increase in containment, as the fire is still advancing and embers are reigniting.
Many of the firefighters who have been on the front lines since the fire began received a 24-hour break while relief moved in, including local Pine Valley firefighters, who returned to their station Tuesday afternoon.
"Now that the incident management team can come in and take over for them, they are getting some needed rest and hopefully getting some needed rest," said Stevenson.
Even with the break, there was still a net increase in those fighting on the front lines, and they’re in a race against time as the drier conditions that kindled this fire are expected to return in full force this week.
Stevenson and other fire officials reiterated something Gov. Spencer Cox mentioned when he visited the area on Sunday, sharing how mitigation efforts made in the surrounding forest to remove trees and brush in the last few years made a difference before the fire even started.
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"When we have areas that we can do either some kind of forest treatments, whether it's a thinning operation, prescribed burning, something like that... those fuels won't burn again or won't burn as rapidly as what we're seeing with unburned fuels," she explained. "So that's good news. That's something that helps us contain the fire."
During his remarks over the weekend, Cox even pointed out that forest treatments saved locations near the Forsyth Fire.
"The forest treatments that we are doing absolutely work, and we need more of them," the governor said. "It's making the forests healthier, and it's stopping these catastrophic fires that, when a fire comes through, it's not nearly as devastating."
But not everyone agrees with Gov. Cox or other fire officials.
Laura Welp, an ecosystems specialist with the Western Watersheds Project, claimed there is no peer-reviewed research into whether those kinds of forest treatments accomplished their objectives. However, there is evidence that building fire-safe communities is an effective way to reduce wildfire risk and a far better use of funds.
