Fire managers extend restrictions, road closures for Southern Utah 5-county region

The Brian Head Fire consumed more than 70,000 acres in Southern Utah, June 23, 2017 | Photo courtesy of Color Country Interagency Fire Center, St. George News / Cedar City News

ST. GEORGE — Less than two weeks after officials announced fire restrictions in various Park Service and Forest Service lands in Southern Utah and northwest Arizona, Color Country Interagency Fire managers released additional restrictions for areas in Washington, Iron, Beaver, Garfield and Kane counties.

Read more: Officials restrict fire use in areas of Southern Utah, northwest Arizona

New restrictions will go into place Friday morning and affect the following areas:

  • Unincorporated privately owned and all state administered lands (Utah Division of Forestry Fire and State Lands).  Incorporated towns and cities are not included in these restrictions.  Contact your local fire department for municipal restrictions.
  • Bureau of Land Management in Beaver, Iron, Kane, Garfield and Washington Counties, in addition to the Henry Mountains portion of Wayne County. Henry Mountains restrictions are further defined as BLM administered land east of Notum Road Scenic Byway, south of Hanksville Scenic Byway/Highway 24 and west of Bicentennial Scenic Byway/Highway 95.
  • Dixie National Forest, including Pine Valley, Cedar City, Powell and Escalante ranger districts.
  • National Park Service, including Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Cedar Breaks National Monument, Pipe Springs National Monument, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Rainbow Bridge National Monument.
  • Bureau of Indian Affairs, including Trust Lands of the Shivwits, Cedar, Indian Peaks, and Kaibab Band reservations.

The following acts are prohibited until further notice:

  • Igniting, building, maintaining or using a fire, including charcoal and briquettes, outside a fire structure provided by the agency within a designated area is prohibited. All debris burning is strictly prohibited.
    • Campfires are allowed in all developed recreation sites, campgrounds, picnic areas and home sites that are maintained by the agency.
  • Discharging or using any kind of fireworks on unincorporated private land.
    • These acts are always prohibited on state and federal lands.
  • Operating or using any internal or external combustion engine without a spark arresting device properly installed, maintained and in effective working order as determined by the Society of Automotive Engineers recommended practices J335 and J350.
  • Detonating of explosives, incendiary or chemical devices, pyrotechnics, exploding targets or tracer ammunition.
    • These acts are always prohibited on federal land.
  • Cutting, welding or grinding of metal in areas of dry vegetation.
  • Smoking except in an enclosed vehicle or building or a developed recreation site or areas of a minimum of 3 feet in diameter cleared down to mineral soil.

Read more: ‘If it can spark, it can cause a fire’: Tips on preventing human-caused wildfires

Some roads in Dixie National Forest will be temporarily closed off by Forest Service due to wildfire danger. Forest Service will be closing the upper end of Forest Road at the junction with the Danish Ranch road and the Oak Grove Campground, as well as the upper end of Browse Road. These closures will go into effect Friday.

For more information on wildfires in Utah, visit Utah Fire’s website.

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Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2018, all rights reserved.

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2 Comments

  • paul May 31, 2018 at 12:41 pm

    Well let’s not do any burns started by the fire dept those seem to get out of hand or out of control

    • mesaman May 31, 2018 at 9:00 pm

      Regardless of the fire danger, we will view the “traditional” fireworks display on 4 July, won’t we? But then we can wait until the geriatric games in the fall if for some reason our elected officials decide to cancel the 4th spectacular.

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