Nation’s largest active fire, the Babylon Fire, is burning in Utah

MONTICELLO — A fire burning in southeast Utah has now surpassed the Cottonwood Fire in Beaver County as the state’s largest fire this season and the largest active fire burning in the U.S.

New evacuations could also be ordered because of the Babylon Fire, which has now burned 96,594 acres in the Manti-La Sal National Forest, 25 miles southwest of Monticello.

The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office elevated a few new areas near the fire to “set,” meaning that residents should be prepared for short-notice evacuations. That came after fire activity picked up on Sunday, pushing it farther to the northeast, according to Great Basin Incident Management Team 2, which is currently overseeing the fire.

More than 1,100 personnel were assigned to the fire on Monday. Federal firefighters say extremely hot and dry conditions are forecast to persist throughout the area this week, keeping timber and brush “at critical, highly flammable levels.”

High temperatures are expected to reach the upper 80s and low 90s in the high-elevation community of Monticello this week, while triple-digit temperatures are forecast for lower-elevation areas in southeast Utah and many other areas of the state.

The Babylon Fire remains 0% contained after starting by an undetermined cause on June 26. Its growth on Sunday pushed its size past the Cottonwood Fire, which has now burned 95,934 acres.

Firefighters continue to gain ground on the Cottonwood Fire, which is now 47% contained. Nearly 1,300 personnel were assigned to the fire at the start of this week.

“Those containment lines mean that we’re comfortable in those areas that we don’t feel the fire will push any more out of those directions,” said Truett Anderson, of Great Basin Incident Management Team 5, in a video update on Monday.

While trying to expand containment of the fire, officials added that crews have also been completing mop-up operations in the Eagle Point, Oak Creek and portions of the North Creek areas, extinguishing and removing burning materials from control lines.

The Cottonwood and Babylon fires remain at the top of the largest active fires list in the U.S., per the National Interagency Fire Center. They account for over one-third of the active fires that have collectively burned 529,468 acres across the U.S., the center reported this week.

They also account for a large chunk of the more than 350,000 acres that have burned in Utah so far this year, the state’s highest total since 2018. Combined, the two fires have also destroyed over 150 structures, most of which were east of Beaver.

The Aspen Acres fire in Colorado, which has burned 91,523 acres, is the only other active fire to surpass 90,000 acres. That fire has also destroyed over 150 structures, the Colorado Sun reported last week.