Wildfire — Salt Lake and Tooele Valleys, Utah

2010-09-19 to 2010-09-24 · Salt Lake and Tooele Valleys, Utah

Event narrative

The Utah National Guard took target practice on their machine gun firing range at Camp Williams on the afternoon of September 19th. Shrapnel from this exercise ignited brush around the area and, with the help of wind gusts generally in the 30-40 mph range and relative humidity values between 5 and 10 percent, the fire quickly spread. This wildfire eventually threatened the nearby town of Herriman, specifically the subdivisions of The Cove at Herriman Springs and the High Country Estates II, resulting in the mandatory evacuation of an estimated 5,000 people in over 1,600 homes. By the time the fire was stopped and contained, it had burned over 4,300 acres, completely destroying 3 houses and damaging at least 400 other houses. Several people were injured due to the fire, primarily police officers and firefighters responding to the blaze, with the most common injury being smoke inhalation. The listed end time is when the fire was 100% contained.

Wider weather episode

Gusty south winds, along with very dry conditions, developed ahead of an approaching cold front. When a wildfire was started at Camp Williams by machine gun fire, the winds helped the fire to rapidly spread into the neighboring community of Herriman, destroying multiple homes and forcing an evacuation of the neighborhood.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 262703. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.