by Kylee Boyter
kboyter@cherryroad.com

On Friday, July 5 at around 1:30 p.m. a fire approximately 8 miles west of Marysvale broke out near the Old Kimberly Mining District and threatening historical mining sites and structures.

What started as a 70 acre fire has snowballed into a blaze that is stated by U.S. Forest Service to have spread to 10,823 acres. In two days the fire has doubled in size, in part because of the hot, dry and windy conditions as well as a large supply of downed timber in the area.

The fire is burning in very steep and rugged terrain with limited accessibility and is exhibiting “extreme fire behavior”.

As of Sunday, July 7, firefighters from various agencies are assigned to the Silver King Fire. Among these teams include hot shot crews, helicopters, Very Large Air Tankers (VLAT’s), and ground resources like dozers and additional heavy equipment, said the U.S. Forest Service in their press release.

On Sunday night Marysvale town held a special town meeting to discuss the Silver King Fire.

An informant from Marysvale Town, Gay Anderson, shared the outcome of the meeting.

The presenters included Bill Davis; Central Utah Fire Interagency media contact, Kylee Scott; search and rescue and incident commander, Travis Finn; Marysvale fire chief, John Christiansen; and Brian Terry.

On Sunday, a massive containment effort was made by air tankers spreading fire retardant, helicopters bucketing water, five hot shot crews, three bulldozers putting in firebreaks, 600 federal personnel, and hand crews protecting structures.

During the meeting, it was disclosed that the fire began from a lightning strike that had occurred approximately 10 days prior. The lightning strike smoldered until it began growing in size.

It was shared with the residents of Marysvale that if an official evacuation order was deemed necessary, volunteers will knock on each door of the town to ensure all residents have evacuated.

A voluntary evacuation has been placed on Bullion Canyon, according to Piute County Sheriff’s Office. As of Sunday, about 15 residents of the Canyon have evacuated.

At this time, no structures have been lost and no containment has occurred. A community wildfire protection plan is in place to keep the residents of Marysvale safe in case of emergency circumstances.

On Monday, July 8, a complex incident management team (Great Basin Team 2) will take command over the fire at 6 a.m.