Friday, July 27, 2012 at 12:16 AM
A series of thunderstorms moved across Cache Valley around midnight on Friday, July 27, igniting a fire southwest of Newton in the canyon where the Bear River flows into Box Elder County. The fire was burning on the steep face above the Wheelon area, southeast of Cutler Reservoir.
Logan City 911 Dispatch received multiple calls about this fire, as did Box Elder County. Fire units from Newton were paged as well as units from Fielding in Box Elder County. This fire was visible from Newton as units responded towards Cache Junction to find an access route to the fire.
A short time later another fire was reported on the south side of Little Mountain on the border of Newton and Trenton’s response area. Trenton, Smithfield, Lewiston and Richmond responded to the second fire; Clarkston was paged to assist Newton with the fire in Wheelon Canyon.
After attempting access from various routes, one unit from Newton was able to get near the Wheelon Fire and determined the best access would be further to the south. The owner of the property was contacted and responded to assist the additional brush units in gaining access to the fire from the south. The Box Elder County units from Fielding attempted access from the Box Elder side but were not able to find a route through the rough terrain to get close enough to assist.
The storm did produce a small amount of rain that may have aided in controlling the fire, but there were still a few spots of active flame as well as several trees that had burned. The hose line from Brush 50 and water from Brush 50 and Brush 10 was used to wet mop the entire burned area. The fire was approximately a quarter of an acre in size and was burning in light grass, sagebrush and juniper in the steep terrain near the top of the canyon.
4 engines with 11 firefighters worked to control the fire; Tender 50 and Tender 52 remained in staging at Cache Junction until it was determined the water on the brush engines would be sufficient to control and mop up the fire. A duty officer from Cache County Fire responded to assist on this fire as well as a CCFD officer to assist with the second fire on Little Mountain. Once the mop up was complete on the fire in Wheelon Canyon all units left the scene.
Contact for the Wheelon Canyon Fire:
Greg Fabricius
Assistant Chief
Newton Fire Department
435-757-3330 – Mobile
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