Pole Creek, Bald Mountain Fires: 90,000-Acre Blaze Prompts Over 6,000 Evacuations

Two fires in Utah — one in Pole Creek and another in Bald Mountain — have reached a combined area of nearly 90,000 acres, with over 6,000 residents evacuated from the affected regions.

The Pole Creek fire covered 74,509 acres and was at 25 percent containment, while the Bald Mountain blaze covered 15,635 acres and was at 12 percent containment as of Tuesday night.

In a press conference at the auditorium of Salem Hills High School on Tuesday, Bald Mountain Fire Type I incident officer Todd Pechota said 671 firefighters were working on the Bald Mountain fire and 880 people on the Pole Creek fire.

Pole Creek Fire Type I Incident Commander Marty Adell said apart from one small metal shed, no major structural damages were reported due to the fire.

"Structure protection is our primary mission right now," he said. "We have a tremendous force to protect those structures and infrastructure."

He added there was no timeframe decided on when the evacuation orders would be lifted. As evacuees are estimated to stay in shelter houses for at least a week, the Spanish Fork community has stepped up, donating all the daily essentials such as food, clothing and toiletries in a warehouse in the Nebo Advanced Learning Center in Salem.

"There's been lots of donations," warehouse employee Randy Wilkinson said, Fox 13 reported. "Just whatever you can think of pretty much."

Meanwhile, Utah resident Nicole Boothe announced on the Spanish Fork community website that she was willing to accommodate cattle and livestock in a spare acre of land she had.

“I’m so proud to live here,” Boothe said, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. “I can’t tally how many people posted [on the internet], ‘We can take horses. We can take cattle. We have a horse trailer.’ I have not seen one negative comment.”

Adell said the Pole Creek fire was burning on the east side of Spanish Fork Peak and might slow down once it reaches the ridge as the peak was "incredibly tall" and a change in wind direction would cause the fire to fall back on itself, the Daily Herald reported.

The southern portion of the fire that burned through part of Highway 89 was contained, while the north end of the fire, along Highway 6 spread over thousand acres Tuesday.

As for the Bald Mountain fire, the fire crew was able to draw what they call a "control feature" or a line of containment in the southern west corner of the blaze in an attempt to stop it from advancing, Pechota said.

Also, air quality levels dropped in the areas affected by the Pole Creek and the Bald Mountain fires as people reported Itchy eyes, runny nose, and sore throat.

In an unrelated incident, a trailer near the base camp of the Pole Creek fire in Spanish Fork burst into flames Tuesday, a little after noon. Although no official cause of the explosion was determined, authorities suspected it had something to do with a generator inside the trailer hitched to a truck, CBS-affiliated KUTV reported.

The firemen put out the fire in a matter of minutes and no one was injured.