The Uintah Basin has had an unusually wet year, which has led to a seemingly delayed wildfire season. That does not mean, however, that our local wildland firefighters have not been busy. The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reports that as of last Friday there are over 420 active fires in Canada with almost 2,800 fires since the beginning of the year. The agency also reports that close to 16.5 million acres have burned so far. As of last Friday, three hand crews have responded from Utah, including the Uintah Basin Regulars made up of wildland fire crews from the Ashley National Forest, Manti-La Sal National Forest, Duchesne Fire Department and Ephraim Fire Department. The Uintah Basin Regulars is made up of those that are available and are able to provide certain fire qualifications to ensure safety and effective firefighting. This results in a different crew each time but a highly skilled group of individuals that can organize quickly as a team. The crew is in Alberta where roughly 3.5 million acres have burned.
