Federal firefighters have been killed in the line of duty while battling wildfires in Utah, with others injured, according to US broadcasters covering the unfolding emergency. The deaths mark the first known fatalities among crews tackling a wave of fast-moving blazes across the state.
ABC News reported that three firefighters were killed battling the Snyder Fire, near Utah's border with Colorado, which it said had burned an estimated 28,000 acres and remained at zero percent containment as crews struggled to gain control. Officials said the three had been trapped by the fire, and first responders later honored them with a procession in Grand Junction, Colorado.
LiveNOW from Fox reported that the federal firefighters had died during the response to the Knowles and Gore fires, and that two others were injured. Fox 26 Houston, citing the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, reported that the crew had been blown back by intense flames the previous day while combating the fires along the Colorado-Utah border, though the exact circumstances of how the firefighters came to be killed were still being established.
The deaths came amid a cluster of wildfires that have devastated parts of Utah, forcing evacuations and destroying homes. The fires have spread quickly in hot, dry and windy conditions that have made the work of firefighting crews especially hazardous.
In St George, firefighters responded after five homes caught fire, broadcasters reported. The National Weather Service had earlier issued a rare "particularly dangerous situation" red flag warning, underlining the heightened risk as the blazes advanced.
The Cottonwood Fire, described by ABC News as the largest fire burning in Utah and one of the most destructive in the state's history, had grown past 92,000 acres and remained zero percent contained, with crews battling multiple separate blazes simultaneously. Fox 26 Houston put the Cottonwood Fire at more than 144 square miles and reported that the scale of the wildfires had prompted both Utah and Colorado to call in the National Guard. Evacuation orders were in place in several areas as the fires threatened homes and forced residents to flee.
Authorities had not released full details in the immediate aftermath, and the identities of those killed had not been confirmed. The line-of-duty deaths add a grim toll to a fire season that officials had already warned was shaping up to be especially dangerous across the region.