Three firefighters have died and two others have been injured while battling wildfires on the Colorado-Utah border on Saturday, the US Wildland Fire Service announced.
The crew members were part of an interagency response to the Knowles and Gore fires, the agency said in a statement. The firefighters were involved in a "burnover incident" – when crews cannot find an escape route and must shelter as a fire passes directly over them. The two surviving firefighters are being treated for burn injuries.
The deaths come as fires across Utah, Colorado and Arizona intensify amid days of low humidity, high temperatures and strong winds, pushing fire behaviour to extremes and prompting emergency declarations from both Utah Governor Spencer Cox and Colorado Governor Jared Polis.
The largest blaze, the Cottonwood Fire in southern Utah's Beaver County, has grown to more than 144 square miles and remains entirely uncontained – the largest wildfire currently burning in the US. It has severely damaged the Eagle Point ski resort and destroyed summer cabins.
Utah recorded its lowest snowpack and warmest winter on record, with snowpack peaking three weeks early, leaving soils and vegetation dry. National Weather Service forecasters issued red flag warnings across a broad swath of the West, from California through Arizona to New Mexico, with critical fire conditions expected to persist.
