Wind fanned a homeowner’s burn pile into a 35-acre wildfire that threatened seven homes Tuesday afternoon.
A resident told dispatchers that a fire in the 900 block of North Cottonwood Road had gone out of control around 11:40 a.m., said West Valley Fire Chief Nathan Craig. The man was trying to clean up his property by burning weeds and brush. Driven by erratic winds, the fire threatened several homes as it burned through grass and heavy stands of sagebrush, Craig said. No homes were damaged, but he said the wind shifts kept firefighters hopping from one place to the other to protect property and keep the fire from spreading.
Around 1:40 p.m., when firefighters were starting mop-up operations, wind spread the fire toward two homes near the bottom of the hill. Fire crews quenched the flames within a half-hour.