Now fires threaten Utah's Dixie area

ST. GEORGE — Earlier this year it was winter flooding that washed out a bridge and isolated the small Washington County community of Gunlock. Now the town's residents are warily watching a summer wildfire that is threatening their homes and livelihoods — just one of several blazes scorching southwestern Utah.

Expecting another hot and windy day, a mandatory evacuation order remains in place today for Gunlock, as flames continue to consume dry brush about four miles away.

"This is unreal. It's just like the floods all over again, only with wildfire. Another disaster," Dean Cox, the county's emergency services director, said just before he left to assess a 2,000-acre fire burning near Pintura along I-15.

Despite the evacuation order, not all of Gunlock's 200 residents have packed up and left. Gail Smith said Saturday she and her husband, Hyrum, decided to take precautionary measures against the potential danger, but they didn't feel it was time to leave their ranch behind.

"We turned our animals out into the fields and moved our vehicles out of storage," she said. "We're about one mile outside of Gunlock and across the road, so we think we're OK for now."

David Boyd, fire information officer with the Bureau of Land Management, said the same fire that threatens Gunlock also is inching toward the Shivwits Indian Reservation.

"We have an evacuation plan in place for Shivwits if we need it," he said. "One of the huge problems facing us is the weather. We hear we're going to be in the same hot, dry windy weather pattern through Wednesday. The evacuation order is still in place for Gunlock. If we're unable to hold the fire where it is now, four miles away, then it could go quickly."

The Westside Complex Fire had consumed 59,000 acres of tinder-dry grass and shrubs by early Saturday evening and was 15 percent contained.

Joanne Ballen said people living in the area around Gunlock are watching the billowing smoke and hoping for the best.

"Things are going OK, people are still eating at the deli," she said from her vantage point in nearby Veyo. "It's really been rough on Gunlock, though, after having the floods in January."

The area is still recovering from those floods, which left residents of Gunlock stranded after a river washed out a bridge. The swollen Santa Clara River also swallowed several homes near St. George.