By Bradley Kennington
Record amounts of rain along the Wasatch Front and Northern Utah in June have kept the threat of fire at a surprising low for this time of year.
'We''ve had quite a bit less activity than we have had last year,' said Tracy Dunford, assistant fire management coordinator for the Division of Forestry, Fire and Statistics.
Due to moisture that lingered in the air over Utah last month, the Central and Northern parts of the state are ahead of where they were last year at this time in terms of fuel moisture.
Fuel moisture is the level at which shrubbery is measured to determine its burning potential. An active growing plant has a fuel moisture of 200. That number decreases as the summer progresses and the temperature rises.
When the fuel moisture drops to a level of 95, that area in which it dropped is considered to be in extreme fire danger and is put on fire restrictions, Coy Porter, Provo City fire chief said.
In Utah County, along the Wasatch Front, the fuel moisture is between 100 and 110 and is not in extreme fire danger yet, he said.
'It is really tough to manage fire restrictions, so we want to make sure there is a real good reason for throwing those on and restricting people''s activity,' Dunford said.
At this time, Southern Utah is the only large region of the state on fire restrictions. But, according to Dunford, this is not unexpected.
'The moisture that we have gotten has pretty much skipped over the Southwest part of the state,' he said. 'So, they''ve stayed dry and hot and as a result they''ve had the most share of the fire activity.'
The South''s dry air moved over the rest of Utah last week forcing the cool, moist air to move east. This hot, dry air is creating a bigger threat of fire throughout the state.
The only major fire in Northern Utah is located 40 miles of Salt Lake City at Table Mountain. The fire started last Monday and burned approximately 800 acres of land before it was contained yesterday.
Provo has taken a stance to counter the potentially dangerous conditions by placing a restriction on the east side of the city prior to the Freedom Day Festival, Porter said. The restriction limits open burning, firework activity and anything of that sort to the west side of 900 East, following the curve around to Timpview Drive and up Canyon Road into Provo Canyon.
Porter explained residents who live in the restricted area can ignite fireworks in one of three neighborhood park locations. Information on the location of these parks is available at any of the firework vendor locations throughout the city.
Porter encourages people to be safe over the holiday and take the proper precautions to avoid unsafe situations.