Fiery heat — Crews suffering double torment

KANOSH, Millard County — As firefighters battle the largest blaze in Utah history, they also battle heat, which on Friday was 100 degrees on some flanks of the Milford Flat fire.

Meteorologist Julia Ruthford said the high temperatures are a constant reminder of the reality of the situation for an on-site weather forecasting team in southern Utah.

"The fire has a big impact on the weather, and the weather has a big impact on the fire," said Ruthford. "It goes both ways."

Firefighters think they have the upper hand on the Milford Flat fire, which Friday night remained at 363,052 acres and was 75 percent contained.

"I think we're on the downhill side," said Rowdy Muir, commander of the Great Basin Type 1 National Incident Management Team fighting the fire.

The unrelenting heat undoubtedly has affected firefighters. As Muir described it, "It was terribly hot."

Ruthford, a National Weather Service employee based in Portland, Ore., and her team are studying satellite images, radar and data from permanent and portable weather stations in the area and reporting conditions to firefighters and personnel.

Temperatures, winds, humidity and thunderstorms are the top conditions to watch during a wildfire, said Ruthford, a University of Washington/Seattle, alumna.

When the earth is blackened, temperatures rise because of the sun's reflection off the ground.

"If the fire is big it pulls winds into it." That occurred during the first days of the Milford Flat fire, Ruthford said, as it was growing in size.

Dust devils common to southern Utah became problematic for firefighters because the winds sometimes caught smoldering ash and flames, as they did yesterday in a small canyon outside Manderfield, Beaver County.

"You could see the debris being sucked into the pocket," fire information officer Mike Martin said. "It was like a tornado."

Large and really hot fires create winds and pressure, resulting in what is often called a "fire whirl" that resembles a fiery cyclone. Witnesses reported seeing a small tornado of fire in the wildfire that killed three men near the eastern Utah town of Neola, Duchesne County. The Neola North fire, after charring more than 43,000 acres, is now largely under control. Firefighters were pulled from the eastern Utah fire to help bring the Milford Flats blaze under control.