Stephen and I took a drive up to the mountain yesturday to check out the horrible damage from the fire. It was just so sad to see so much beautiful country burnt to a crisp. In my past blog wher I wrote about "Miners Basin" that is wher the fire was. We are so lucky to have hiked up there to see how beautiful the area was. This was are favorite spot to go on a sunday drive and to always look along the mountain side and canyon for elk. I just wanted to put some pictures up just to show how devasting it was to see this, especially since are mountains have never had such a huge fire. Below I put a write up that was in are local paper.
A wildfire that burned about 3,500 acres along the north side of the La Sal Mountains is now 85 percent contained, and firefighters expect to have the blaze completely contained by Sept. 8, state Forest Service officials said Wednesday.Moab/Monticello Fire District Ranger Mike Diem said all roads and trails in the La Sals are now open, but a section of the mountain between Miner’s Basin and Bachelor Basin remains closed to public access due to safety concerns. Some hot spots are still burning near Grand View and Horse Mountain, and the steep, rocky terrain is too dangerous for firefighters to enter those areas, Diem said.On Monday, the Utah Division of Forestry handed control of the fire back to the local Forest Service district. At one time, more than 400 firefighters, 16 fire engines, and five helicopters were on the scene. Diem said Wednesday that a 120-person crew, two engines, and one helicopter are still assigned to the area.“They will probably be on the incident through the end of this week,” Diem said. “People will see smoke plumes popping up occasionally in there. That’s to be expected, but we’re monitoring [the hot spots] and will deal with those as they come up.”Firefighters responded to the blaze around 1:15 p.m. on Wednesday. Aug. 27, and the fire quickly spread across the rocky talus slopes on the north side of the mountains. The fire was likely caused by a lightning strike the prior evening, and smoldered until the heat of the day Wednesday caused the ignited area to burst into flames, Diem said.“There are a lot of times when you don’t pick it up right away because it’s not very visible,” Diem said. About 25 homes, many of them summer homes, were evacuated Wednesday. Utah Division of Forestry spokesman Jason Curry said. The evacuation orders were lifted earlier this week.“The fire started on SITLA [state School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration] land on the south side of the Loop Road,” said Heather O’Hanlon of the Moab Interagency Fire Center. The fire quickly jumped to the north side of the mountains and charred thousands of acres of state Forest Service land.Diem said two groups of people who were hiking and biking in the Miner’s Basin area were evacuated by Forest Service officials on Wednesday and a vehicle parked on the La Sal Loop Road was completely burned. Initial reports said those who were stranded were evacuated by helicopter, but Diem said Forest Service employees were able to lead them by vehicle out of danger.“We were extremely fortunate that we didn’t have any injuries or worse,” Diem said.He said no summer homes or other major structures were burned in the blaze, although some “remnants” of older or historical structures may have been lost.A burned area emergency rehabilitation team was heading into the La Sals on Wednesday to assess the fire damage and develop a plan for rehabilitating some areas, Diem said. “Because it’s a water source area, they’ll be looking at what needs to be done [to mitigate damage to the aquifer,]” he said. “Once we come up with a plan, we’ll try to get that information out to the public.”
