CEDAR CITY — The Flatt Fire, a lightning-sparked wildfire that started Friday afternoon along the Old Modena Road near Beryl and spread to Enterprise, burned thousands of acres in a matter of hours, officials said.
According to information from the Color Country Interagency Fire Center, the fire had burned an estimated 10,000 acres as of Saturday morning.
At least two structures are believed to have been lost, one in the Beryl area and one near Enterprise. No injuries have been reported.
Enterprise Mayor Brandon Humphries said Saturday morning that while there are no longer any evacuation orders in place for Enterprise residents, about 20 homes in a small unincorporated area several miles west of Enterprise known as Hebron were in the process of being evacuated early Saturday.
“It’s not an immediate threat; this is just a precautionary measure because of the remote access to this location,” Humphries said. “So if the firefighters run into there, we don’t want anybody trapped inside and not be able to get them out.”
Humphries said in addition to many firefighters who are battling the blaze on the ground, the air attack has resumed, with a helicopter joining multiple fixed-wing aircraft in dropping either water or retardant onto the fire.
The mayor also asked for the public’s cooperation in staying away from the fire area unless they live there or have reason to be there.
“If you have no business there, right now’s not the time to come,” he said. “It’s very smoky. It’s very hazy. And it’s dangerous at this point, because our emergency vehicles, our roads are limited as far as our access to the fire.”
Humphries said that while conditions have been calm for much of the morning on Saturday, they anticipate winds to pick up by mid-afternoon.
“All the resources that are possible to have, they plan on having here by early afternoon,” he said.
Although the Flatt Fire is still listed at zero containment, Utah Fire Info said in a Facebook post that crews, engines, air tankers and bulldozers have made “good progress,” including direct suppression tactics, building and securing fire line along the fire perimeter to safeguard Enterprise.
For more information about the Flatt Fire, including a video report and photo gallery, click here to read the St. George News article that was last updated late Friday night.
Some aerial and ground resources are also being directed toward a second, much smaller wildfire burning in a remote area north of Modena. That fire, which also reportedly started Friday afternoon, has been named the Cougar Basin Fire.
This is a developing story.
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