The Milford Flat Fire is the largest

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

history. It was started by

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...

on Friday, July 6, 2007 at 3:45 pm near

Milford, Utah Milford is a city in Beaver County, Utah, United States. The population was 1,409 at the 2010 census and 1,394 as of a 2019 Census Bureau estimate. History Although settlers had established ranches in the area in the 1870s, Milford was not de ...

. The fire burned 363,052

acres The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ya ...

(567 square miles) and caused large stretches of

I-15 I15 may refer to: * Interstate 15, a north–south Interstate Highway in the United States of America * Polikarpov I-15, a Soviet fighter aircraft * I15 (band) "Soulja Girl" is the second single from American rapper Soulja Boy's studio album '' ...

to be temporarily closed. Many veteran firefighters had stated this was the fastest-moving fire they had ever seen. On Saturday, July 7, smoke caused numerous wrecks on I-15, including a 5-car pile-up, and a fatal

hit-and-run In traffic laws, a hit and run or a hit-and-run is the act of causing a traffic collision and not stopping afterwards. It is considered a supplemental crime in most jurisdictions. Additional obligation In many jurisdictions, there may be an ...

that killed 2 motorcyclists from

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The fire also caused 10 truckers to abandon their cargo trailers on the side of the road. A stretch of I-15 was later closed. The fire crossed the freeway around Cove Fort that afternoon, causing it to be evacuated. The fire narrowly missed the local

Chevron Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to: Science and technology * Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines * Chevron (anatomy), a bone * ''Eulithis testata'', a moth * Chevron (geology), a fold in rock lay ...

gas station, but claimed 2 garage-like structures near it, including the Dog Valley Trading Post, as well as a crew cab pickup truck left in a Park-and-Ride lot. By that evening the fire had amassed to . On Sunday, July 8, the fire slowed somewhat, reaching the mark by evening. The freeway was reopened, but later a stretch was closed for 5 hours. Also, FEMA announced the appropriation of federal funds to help fight the fire. Some evacuated residents of Cove Fort returned to view the damage. On July 9,

Firefighters A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

were going to

backburn Backburn is a rural settlement near Gartly in Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its n ...

parts of I-15, but the winds changed, and the plans were canceled. More crews arrived, bringing the total personnel from 200 to about 300 firefighters. By the end of the day, the fire had grown to , but was 10% contained. On July 15 the fire was contained at .

External links

"Massive Wildfire Grows to {{convert, 283000, acre, km2, 0"~KSL"Cove Fort Residents Escape Just in Time"~KSL"Huge Fire Closes Freeway, Forces Evacuations"~KSL
Beaver County, Utah Wildfires in Utah 2007 wildfires in the United States 2007 in Utah

See also

External links