ST. GEORGE —An early morning fire on Cottonwood Road burned an estimated 5 acres Monday morning, threatening substations and wood power line poles.
St. George Fire Chief Robert Stoker told St. George News a call came into dispatch at approximately 5:30 a.m. reporting a fire near Cottonwood Road. The report was made by a Rocky Mountain Power employee who was headed to a nearby substation. As the employee came over a hill, he saw the flames and immediately reported the fire.
With the fire located just outside of city limits, Stoker said they aren’t sure exactly what time the fire started. St. George Fire Department responded to the fire and contacted the Washington County Fire Warden with Utah Forestry Fire and State Lands.
Bureau of Land Management units also responded along with Forest Service personnel and a group of hotshots, which Stoker said he believed were released from the Dalton Wash Fire in order to assist.
Stoker said their main concern was the fire’s proximity to a main Rocky Mountain Power substation and offices (south of the fire), as well as another substation (north of the fire). They also were concerned with the surrounding power poles. While larger power poles in the area have been switched out to metal poles, he said there are still quite a few wood poles that come in and out of the substations, which are a fire risk.
“We have several fires up here over the past years and the power lines are our biggest concern,” Stoker said. “One, just for safety, but if it gets into the wood poles, it can burn those poles out, then we lose power to several areas of the county.”
Stoker said that even though there aren’t many structures in the area, there are a variety of infrastructures that can be damaged, which could affect both the area’s power and water systems.
Several units were still at the site putting out hotspots and checking the bases of power poles for damage. Stoker said each year, the area gets multiple fires that are commonly caused by fireworks and sometimes campfires. Outside of human-caused fires in the area, Stoker also said that sometimes animals get in power pole lines and get electrocuted, causing them to fall down into the brush, which can also start fires.
The cause of the Cottonwood Fire is under investigation with no point of origin or cause at this time. Units are utilizing witness statements in order to determine where the fire may have originated.
Stoker said the area of this morning’s fire borders tortoise habitat land and that crew members are very careful about disturbing as little of that land as possible while fighting fires. They focus on using hand crews and laying down hose lines from smaller brush trucks in order to extinguish the fire.
Photo Gallery
Fire Crew puts out hotspots from an early morning fire that burned 5 acres, St. George, Utah, June 13, 2022 | Photo Courtesy of Chief Robert Stoker, St. George News Fire Crew puts out hotspots from an early morning fire that burned 5 acres, St. George, Utah, June 13, 2022 | Photo Courtesy of Chief Robert Stoker, St. George News Fire Crew puts out hotspots from an early morning fire that burned 5 acres, St. George, Utah, June 13, 2022 | Photo Courtesy of Chief Robert Stoker, St. George News Fire damage from an early morning fire is shown, St. George, Utah, June 13, 2022 | Photo Courtesy of Chief Robert Stoker, St. George News Fire Crew puts out hotspots from an early morning fire that burned 5 acres, St. George, Utah, June 13, 2022 | Photo Courtesy of Chief Stoker, St. George News
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