A wetter than normal June in the Uintah Basin has been followed by soaring temperatures in July, setting the stage for a potentially incendiary fire season.

“As things dry out, and the humidities go down, and the temperatures rise our fuels get drier,” said Cheryl Nelsen, manager of the Uintah Basin Interagency Fire Center in Vernal. “Unless we have significant moisture, it's just going to get worse.”

Nelsen said the fire danger for the Basin is currently low. But all it takes is one major thunderstorm to show just how easily a blaze can start. On Monday, Nelsen's operation was monitoring a handful of wildland fires in Duchesne and Uintah counties, including two started Sunday by lightning strikes.

“We had a lightning storm come through and we picked up some fires,” Nelsen said.

No resources have been dispatched so far to the Sunday School Fire in the Book Cliffs, which Nelsen classified as a small blaze, but the North Coyote Basin Fire burning above Neola is being fought by tribal and state crews. Nelsen said a helicopter has been ordered to help fight the 10-acre fire, which was expected to be under control by 8 p.m. Monday.

Two other fires sparked by Sunday's storm – one north of Vernal by Doc's Beach, the other 2½ miles north of Neola – were quickly extinguished. A third fire at Horseshoe Bend in Uintah County burned a half-acre before it was brought under control. Nelsen said the cause of that fire remains under investigation.

Sunday's blazes capped a week of wildfire activity in the Basin that began last Monday with the Garden Creek Fire in Island Park. A shed fire at the Staley homestead sparked the blaze that was fought by crews from Naples, Jensen, Vernal, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Forest Service, the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands.

The remote area is surrounded by dry brush and trees, and firefighters prepared for the fire to spread, calling in a helitack team, water trucks, and a helicopter. The helicopter drew water from the nearby Green River to extinguish the flames threatening other structures, but was unable to use the same water to fully put out the fire, due to federal regulations.

Nelsen said the Garden Creek Fire – also sparked by lightning – burned 201 acres of private, state and National Park Service land and is now out. Resources were pulled off that fire on Wednesday afternoon to battle the Twin Knolls Fire north of Talmage.

The seven-acre fire was fought by as many as 55 firefighters from city, state, and tribal agencies. A helicopter was also employed, Nelsen said, and the fire was contained by 6 p.m. on Friday.

“All the resources are off that fire,” she said.

The Basin's largest wildfire is the Blind Canyon Fire in the Book Cliffs. It was started by lightning on Wednesday in a wilderness study area on Winter Ridge. Nelsen said to date the fire has burned 1,415 acres.

“Because it's in a wilderness study area we're doing 'appropriate management response,'” she said. “We're letting the fire do its thing for resource benefit. ... Wildlife habitat will be the resource benefit.”

Well sites and a compressor station are being threatened by the fire, but Nelsen said crews have created defensible space around those structures.

“Hopefully they'll be OK,” she said, noting that there are firefighting resources, including a helicopter, on scene.

Nelsen said the monsoon season that typically hits the Basin in the late summer and early fall should eventually help reduce the fire danger.

“We have the opportunity for (fires) to get larger as things dry out,” she said. “But as we get those monsoons, we'll still have fires, but the possibility of them getting large will decrease.”

Contributing: Tabatha Deans, Vernal Express