Brush fire burns 2.5 acres near recreation area in Hurricane; firefighters blame human activity

ST. GEORGELess than a year after a similar burn in the same area, fire crews returned to the banks of the Virgin River near the Long Valley Recreation area to fight a brush fire sparked Saturday evening.

Capt. Steve Harris with the Hurricane Valley Fire District took over as incident commander during the response, which continued throughout Sunday as firefighters monitored hotspots and maintained a containment line around the 2.5-acre burn.

Harris said it’s believed the fire was human caused, though the exact time and details of its ignition are still under investigation. 

Last year’s burn spread through the same thicket of invasive tamarisk and Russian olive growing along the riverbank. It was reportedly caused when flames spread from a camp trailer left in the area.

“The problem with fire in tamarisk is it’s just really thick and hard to work in,” Harris said. “ Grass fires are nice because we can be out of there in a couple of hours. This thicker fuel holds the heat. It takes a lot of saw work, and that’s a lot of work to put them out.”

Firefighters with multiple agencies responded to a brush fire that sparked in the late evening hours on Saturday near the Long Valley Recreation Area, Hurricane, Utah, March 19, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Trevor Madson, St. George News

Trevor Madson was camping with his family when the fire broke out just a few hundred feet from their campsite, and he told St. George News that they had a front-row seat to the emergency response as police and firefighters arrived at the scene. 

“I got there around 5 or 5:30 p.m., and the fire started shortly after that,” Madson said. “At first, I thought it was a farmer burning his excess or something like that, but then it got huge – you could see it from miles away.” 

Madson’s campsite was situated across Pecon Road at a relatively safe distance from the fire. He said his group was allowed to stay, and he heard and saw first responders working throughout the night to contain the blaze.

No injuries were reported in connection to the fire, and no structures were threatened while it was burning.

Harris and the Hurricane Valley Fire District were assisted by the Washington City Fire Department and fire crews with the Bureau of Land Management and the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands.

The fire was reported to authorities at 7:25 p.m. on Saturday and wasn’t fully contained until around 11 a.m. on Sunday. Harris said he expected to be out with his fire crews for some time longer to continue coordinating the multi-agency response.

“When we leave, I don’t ever want to come back, so I make sure it’s out cold,” he said. “We’re making sure it’s 100% out.”

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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