The biggest wildfire in modern Utah history consumed an unprecedented 363,052 acres.
That came in 2007 with the Milford Flat Fire in Beaver County. Its massive size outpaced the next largest in the state by more than 200,000 acres.
It was so large, its acreage amounted to half the size of Rhode Island. The nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., could fill it eight times over. And two and half Zion National Parks would fit inside.
“The size of that fire just typically does not happen in Utah,” said Phil Dennison, a professor at the University of Utah who studies the science of wildfires.
But dangerous and unfavorable conditions that year let the Milford Flat Fire “make a huge run,” Dennison said. And those same conditions — low snowpack, dry vegetation and high heat — are all colliding again this summer.
“It’s likely to be another bad wildfire year, up there with the worst in Utah history,” the professor predicted.
Also, new wildfires have quickly spread across tens of thousands of acres in Colorado, forcing people to evacuate from their homes and destroying buildings. Rob Marciano and Jonah Kaplan have the latest.