A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Southwestern states have seen a big jump in wildfires over the last week. That includes Utah, where at least six wildfires are burning, and officials say this could be the start of a long season. Member station KUER's Caroline Ballard reports from Salt Lake City.
CAROLINE BALLARD, BYLINE: Last weekend, the Bonneville Fire lit up Salt Lake City's eastern foothills in flames, right behind one of its biggest hospitals. Now the hills are a charred black, and throughout the state, a thick blanket of smoke has settled in. Sierra Hellstrom, the public information officer for the team fighting that fire, says many in Utah have been expecting a lot of fires this summer.
SIERRA HELLSTROM: We've been in a pattern of extreme drought the last couple of years. So that leaves not only the fuels dry from this last year, but long term, the fuels have been stressed because they've been dried out for multiple years.
BALLARD: Plus, Utah had its worst winter on record with warm temperatures and little snow.
HELLSTROM: Now that we've hit multiple weeks of this hot, dry, windy trend that we're seeing, the fuels are incredibly receptive. It's taking almost no heat at all. One little spark, one little exhaust pipe over really dry grass, one bullet target shooting that can spark these fires.
BALLARD: And while the Bonneville Fire near Salt Lake is mostly contained, others are exploding fast. Small starts have grown to tens of thousands of acres in a matter of hours, like the Iron Fire, about 90 minutes south of Salt Lake City. The roughly 700 residents of the historic mining town of Eureka have been under mandatory evacuation orders since Saturday. And the Cottonwood Fire, about two hours south of there, has also prompted evacuations. For now, the state has all the fire crews it needs, says Karl Hunt with the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands.
KARL HUNT: But as more fires pop up in neighboring states and they're calling for additional aid, it can really strain the system. And that's why it's important for us to do our part to limit the amount of starts because when those resources get stretched thin, they have to prioritize what fires get them.
BALLARD: And Hunt says all of this is happening earlier than normal.
HUNT: Right now, we're seeing fire behavior and fire activity that we would normally see in mid-July or August.
BALLARD: That leaves a lot of summer and possible fires ahead.
For NPR News, I'm Caroline Ballard in Salt Lake City. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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