Utah-Utah/Salt lake County Wildfire

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Fire Burning at Camp Williams
Jul. 8, 2003
(Salt Lake City-AP) -- A spark from a contractor doing some welding started a 500-plus acre fire at Camp Williams today.

Salt Lake County fire Captain Jay Ziolkowski (zoll-COW-ski) says the fire started about 11 a-m and had burned more than 500 acres and was 70 percent contained by 4 p-m.

Ziolkowski says the communities of Eagle Mountain and Saratoga faced a low threat, but there were no evacuations.

The fire was contained to the National Guard camp.

More than 100 fire personnel and an air tanker and two helicopters were fighting the blaze.

Ziolkowski says the fire moved quickly under high winds and low humidity even though the welder had two people monitoring for fire safety.
Video Report:
http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?sid=37309&nid=8

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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MOre Information on the fire

Blaze nears homes before being contained
Date:Wednesday, July 09 @ 00:00:30 MDT
Topic:Front Page


A fast-moving fire sparked by welding equipment on Tuesday burned about 1,500 acres of brush at Camp Williams.

Firefighters had the blaze fully contained by about 8 p.m., but some crews were expected to continue fighting hot spots with military personnel providing a firewatch overnight, said Salt Lake County Fire Department Capt. Jay Ziolkowski. Fire crews were expected to resume fighting the blaze this morning.

Firefighters spent much of Tuesday night fighting the last front of the fire, which was sweeping southwest and heading west of Eagle Mountain after jumping a fire line, Ziolkowski said. The blaze never threatened any structures, but flames were within two miles of a Saratoga Springs housing subdivision. No homes were evacuated, and no one was injured.

The fire was sparked by a welder under contract with the military who was working on a jump tower on the base near Bluffdale just after 11 a.m., Ziolkowski said. Despite the presence of a fire watch to make sure the welder's work didn't start a fire, the blaze rapidly moved toward Utah County.

"The fire just got away," Ziolkowski said, adding that the conditions were a combination of low humidity, high temperatures, high winds and dry fuels. "All of these made for a pretty rapid fire."

Much of the acreage burned before 6 p.m. More than 100 firefighters from nine different agencies battled to extinguish the blaze using an air tanker and two helicopters.

The effort involved fire departments from Saratoga Springs, Lehi, Eagle Mountain, Utah County, Salt Lake County, Bluffdale, West Jordan and South Jordan. Personnel from the military and the Bureau of Land Management also helped to battle the blaze.

"All the agencies worked well together," Ziolkowski said. "And that was one of the biggest successes of the day."

But there were some challenges. The fire burned an area that had been used for explosives training, and fire crews were forced to remain on roads to fight the blaze because of the fear that some ordnances buried there were still live.