Parts of Utah considered high risk for wildfires

SALT LAKE CITY — Right now, Los Angeles isn’t the only place in the Western United States with a high threat of wildfires. According to several wildfire risk assessment maps, parts of Utah are also considered high risk.

Wildfires ripping through LA’s hillside neighborhoods, with the right conditions could pose similar threats here in Utah.

“You never know when a fire will start,” Taiga Rohrer, deputy state fire management officer of the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands, said.

Rohrer is one of Utah’s leading fire risk experts. He said while the Wasatch Front doesn’t have California’s strong Santa Ana winds, Utah’s eastern benches share other factors that can fuel fires near homes.

“You have a very receptive fuel bed, a very large population, a lot of opportunities for fires to get started,” Rohrer said.

Areas most at fire risk are Utah neighborhoods with homes tucked up high into the hillside next to a lot of trees and dry brush, where winds can quickly carry a fire up and down the steep slopes. One example is last year’s Sandhurst fire behind the Utah State Capitol:  Homes close to steep dry brush and flames that burned 200 acres. While no homes were destroyed, it forced dozens of people to evacuate.

Rohrer said the state’s wildfire risk map can tell you how many other areas are just like it.

“They can actually zoom into their neighborhood, kind of get a glimpse of what the wildfire risk is around their community where they live,” Rohrer said.

Rohrer said while it’s not meant to be exact, it can help you decide if you need to look into protecting your home.

“That can help guide folks on just how urgent it is to take care of things,” he said.

If you’d like to see where your home sits for fire risk, click on this link to Utah’s wildfire risk map.