BEAVER, Utah (AP) — The three firefighters killed over the weekend in wildfires along the Colorado-Utah border were part of a crew that goes into remote areas to quickly put out new fires, federal officials said Monday.
The three were killed and two others suffered burns when they were overcome Saturday by flames after deploying emergency shelters to shield themselves from fast-moving fires.
Wildfires have erupted over the past week across the West, fueled by months of dry weather and a record lack of snow this past winter in some places. Wildfire experts have been warning for months that extreme fire dangers are likely this summer.
With more than two dozen large fires burning across the U.S., almost 8,000 wildland firefighters and dozens of firefighting helicopters have been deployed. About half of the largest blazes are in Alaska while the rest are mostly in Western states.
Officials on Monday increased the national “preparedness level” for wildfires to a 4, on a scale of 1 to 5. That’s a sign resources are beginning to be strained, and officials warned of a high potential for new, large fires in multiple parts of the country in coming days.
Among the concerns were high winds in the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming, in the Black Hills of South Dakota and across portions of the High Plains.
Evacuations were in place for seven fires, including in Arizona, Washington state, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah.
So far this year, the fires have burned more than 4,800 square miles (12,400 square kilometers) — the most by this point in the year since 2022 and significantly above the 10-year average.
READ MORE: 3 firefighters killed, 2 injured while tackling wildfires on the Colorado-Utah border
The U.S. Forest Service identified the firefighters killed as Emily Barker, 38, of Clinton Township, Michigan; Nick Hutcherson, 27 of Glendale, Arizona; and Sydney Watson, 26, of Warrior, Alabama.
They were assigned to a Helitack crew that can be dropped into remote areas by helicopters and whose mission is to prevent new fires from growing into out-of-control blazes. But it can be extremely dangerous, often taking place in areas where fires are rapidly expanding.
One of the crew members worked for the U.S. Wildland Fire Service while two were assigned to the U.S. Forest Service and all were part of an interagency response to fires just west of Grand Junction, Colorado.
The Snyder Fire in the area has burned about 44 square miles (114 square kilometers), authorities said.
The Wildland Fire Service, created earlier this year to streamline firefighting on public lands, said in a statement that it “stands united” with the Forest Service in grief and “in our unwavering support for the loved ones left behind.”
The weekend deaths came almost exactly 13 years after a crew of 19 wildland firefighters were killed when they were trapped in a brush-choked box canyon near Yarnell, Arizona.
Like Saturday’s victims, the men killed in Arizona in June 2013 were members of a specialized firefighting crew who had tried to deploy emergency shelters meant to shield them from flames and heat.
Brown reported from Billings, Montana and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio.
