Loggers who accidentally started a fire that burned more than 33,000 acres east of Kamas last fall will pay a maximum of $16,000 toward fighting the blaze, which cost over $20 million in all.
The Yellow Lake Fire probably was caused by friction or sparks from machinery operated by loggers harvesting timber on the Heber-Kamas Ranger District of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, according to a U.S. Forest Service report.
An investigation concluded the fire began on Sept. 27 as a “holdover event” that was reported the next day when visible smoke was spotted, the report says.
“Holdover fire events occur when ignited fuel smolders at low intensity,” the report says. “During this dormant phase, smoke and flame can go undetected.”
The investigation ruled out all other fire cause categories — lightning, campfires, smoking, debris burning, arson/incendiary, railroad, children and miscellaneous. The fire burned 33,041 acres, the report says.
The report was obtained by The Park Record through a Freedom of Information Act request and the name of the company involved was redacted.
The logging equipment was being used on the 406-acre Duchesne Ridge Fuelwood Sale site under a contract with the Forest Service. Investigators classified the blaze as a fire that was caused by logging operations that did not involve negligence.
Under the contract, the maximum obligation to the Forest Service for the cost of suppressing an operations fire is set at $16,000.
The Yellow Lake Fire Burned Area report says about two-thirds of the fire was located within the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest and the other third was in the Ashley National Forest. About 86% of the burned area exhibited low or very-low soil burn severity, 14% experienced moderate burn severity and less than 1% had high severity soil burns, the report says. No structures were damaged, although some timber piles burned.
The fire continued burning until rain and snowstorm rolled in Oct. 18, effectively stopping the fire. Full containment was declared Nov. 10, and forest officials warned of snags falling throughout winter. Around 1,000 personnel worked on the fire at peak.
Previous to the Yellow Lake Fire, the last bigger fire in this forest was the 4,000-acre Box Canyon Fire near Smith and Morehouse Reservoir in 2016. The area had a total of 3,000 acres burned over the course of 20 years before that.
East beyond the Yellow Lake Fire, the East Fork Fire burned 90,000 acres in 2020, blowing out of the High Uintas of the Ashley National Forest about 15 miles north of Duchesne with a windstorm into lower elevations and lighter fuels.