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| Shooting sparks fire in Utah; |
| Shooting sparks fire in Utah; 2300 homes evacuated
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| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
, 23-June-2012
1:36:7 AM |
| Residents of at least 2,300 homes in northern Utah were being evacuated on Friday after high winds kicked up a fire started by target shooters.
The roughly 4,000-acre blaze, or about 6.25 square miles, started Thursday near the Saratoga Springs landfill, about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City. High winds then helped fan the flames onto tinder-dry grasslands.
Authorities were initially worried as flames moved toward property owned by an explosives company. But as winds kicked up, the fire began moving toward Saratoga Springs, and crews began focusing on saving homes.
Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Teresa Rigby said the 2,300 houses evacuated include residents who voluntarily left, along with those ordered to leave.
On Friday, fire officials were calling in additional aircraft and extra ground crews.
BLM officials say they believe the blaze was caused when a bullet hit a rock and sparked the fire. This is the 20th target-shooting related fire this year in Utah, they said.
One firefighter had suffered minor burns, and no structural damage had been reported, said Jason Curry, a spokesman for the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands.
Utah County Sheriff Jim Tracy said he feared the fire could take down the area's power grid, shutting off electricity to up to 7,000 homes.
"Several power poles and transformers ... up and down the fire lines have burned," Tracy said Friday evening. "If the fire gets a couple more critical poles and drops that grid, wires down on the ground, it will black out this entire area."
A continued mix of hot, windy and extremely dry conditions has raised the fire danger across Utah and parts of Wyoming, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado
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