BEAVER COUNTY, Utah — The footprint of the Cottonwood Fire burning near Beaver continued to increase in size overnight, and is now estimated at 61,137 acres with zero percent containment as of Wednesday morning.
Along with the size increase, new communities surrounding the fire have been put on alert to be ready in case additional evacuation orders are issued. In addition, Rocky Mountain Power has de-energized power lines in Piute County and is warning residents to be prepared for a prolonged outage.
A local judge announced that court operations in Garfield and Piute counties will be suspended because the fire caused both courthouses to lose power. It's not known when they will resume.
The plan on Wednesday was for fire crews to engage in structure protection, as well as fireline construction.
Watch Gov. Cox's full briefing after touring Cottonwood Fire site:
All original evacuation orders are still in effect, with other communities told to prepare.
Piute County residents were put on notice to be ready to evacuate at 2 a.m. Wednesday. The Piute County Sheriff's Office said Junction and Circleville have been moved to READY status, which means residents should be prepared to evacuate, with pets and bags ready to go.
Video: Smoke seen above Beaver from Cottonwood Fire
The Piute County Sheriff's Office denounced a rumor that the fire had jumped Highway 89 between Junction and Marysvale. The said that was not the case and that the highway remains open to all traffic.
As the fire rapidly expanded Tuesday, the state received somewhat of a lifeline when the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved the state's request for funds to battle the flames.
Throughout the day and evening, many people shared images of homes having been destroyed, but the Beaver County Sheriff's Office said the extent of any damage, if any, to cabins, trailers, and vehicles is not yet known.
The Cottonwood Fire was discovered at 3:36 p.m. after sparking near milepost 5 on State Route 153, then spread to Beaver Mountain, almost directly east of the town. It quickly grew to 10,000 acres by 10:45 p.m., according to Utah Fire Info.
Beaver County Emergency Management said evacuations were ordered for people in the HiLo area east of the city, Arrowhead Summer Homes, Merchant Valley, and Eagle Point.
SR-153 is closed in both directions between mileposts 2 and 25.
In addition, Beaver City announced that the public is not allowed to use the pressurized irrigation system until further notice, because firefighting crews will be taking water from the pressurized irrigation pond.
“This is probably the worst I’ve seen since I’ve been down here," said Beaver resident David Long. "We get some pretty good fires down here and we do prescribed burns from year to year, but this one has really taken off."
Video below shows the massive plume of smoke, seen from Parowan (Kurtis Heidenreich)
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