Three small towns remain evacuated as Southern Utah fire crews get ‘slight relief’ from winds.
(U.S. Forest Service) As smoke amasses in the background, crews gather at the Pine Valley fire station on Sunday, June 22, 2025, for information about the Forsyth Fire that has burned more than 1,600 acres since Thursday.
Firefighters battling the Forsyth Fire in Washington County received a bit of good news Sunday: winds that whipped up the lightning-caused fire have somewhat calmed.
The change in the wind brought “slight relief,” the Great Basin Complex Incident Management Team 7 reported in its Sunday update.
Gov. Spencer Cox toured the area Sunday. He called the scene “obviously devastating,” and warned that more fires will be coming across Utah as heat and lack of water create tinderbox conditions statewide.
“It’s going to get dicey everywhere,” Cox told reporters in Pine Valley after meeting with officials there.
The Forsyth Fire started Thursday, and by Sunday had burned some 5,500 acres, Cox said.
As of Sunday, according to the Utah Fire Info website, the fire remained 0% contained.
Cox confirmed that 13 houses and a few outbuildings were destroyed in the community of Pine Valley, about 30 miles north of St. George. “It’s a miracle that there were only 13 homes gone,” he said.
Chief Robert Hardy of the Pine Valley Fire Department said no families were displaced by the fire, and that most of the houses lost were second homes. Two of the houses lost belonged to volunteer firefighters, Cox added.
Cox said he was heartened by the fact that no one was killed or injured in the fire.
“We can replace property, but we can’t replace people,” Cox said.
Pine Valley, nearby Grass Valley and a third community — Pinto, a 14-mile drive north of those two — have received evacuation orders.
Roughly 400 firefighters are working to contain the fire, the Great Basin team reported.
Two other large wildfires — also caused naturally — were still burning in southern Utah on Sunday, according to the Utah Fire Info map:
• The France Canyon Fire, between US-89 and Bryce Canyon National Park about 10 miles south of Panguitch, had consumed more than 15,000 acres and was 10% contained.
• The Bridge Creek Fire, a mile or so west of Navajo Mountain on Navajo Nation land near the Utah-Arizona border, had burned more than 2,100 acres and was 0% contained.
The lightning that sparked the Forsyth Fire, Cox said, likely didn’t happen on Thursday.
“It was a holdover, a tree that was hit probably 10 days ago,” Cox said. “When the winds picked up, it took off and was off to the races.”
Cox urged Utahns to be vigilant to prevent human-caused fires. He suggested people be “extra careful” when lighting campfires or going target shooting, or “better just not to do it right now.” He also urged people with trailers to make sure their chains are not dragging, causing sparks.
Cox also asked people, as the Fourth of July holiday approaches, to “go to the big fireworks shows, the professional displays, and hold off on your personal fireworks.”
Federal policy of forest treatment, begun in the first Trump administration and continued in the Biden administration, will help contain the biggest fires, Cox said.
“We need more logging, we need more grazing,” Cox said. “It’s not destroying the forests at all. It’s making the forests healthier, and it’s stopping these catastrophic fires.”
Cox added that he also will encourage Utahns in the next week to pray for rain — something he has done in previous summers.