Firefighters: Goshen Canyon Fire preliminarily linked to target shooting

GOSHEN, Utah County — Investigators said Wednesday that a fire that sparked in Goshen Canyon preliminarily appeared to have been sparked somehow by target shooting.

As of Wednesday afternoon, firefighters said the Goshen Canyon Fire had been measured at 408 acres and that it was 25% contained.

“If you’re going to go out target shooting, make sure your backstop is clear,” Karl Hunt, fire spokesman with the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, said. “A simple spark can turn into a big fire, and so we just need to kind of do our part to limit our impact on what those wildfire starts will be this year.”

Hunt acknowledged the area was a popular spot for target shooters, and neighbor Dwayne Bass said target shooters had been the source of problems in the canyon before. Bass said that those issues included another, smaller fire they started last fall in the canyon.

“There’s hundreds of people that go through the canyon and shoot from time to time,” Bass said during an interview with KSL.

On Tuesday night, he said he was working on his property and smelled smoke, and he took a drive up the canyon to investigate.

“The fire started right there,” he pointed as he showed KSL an area where state fire crews were actively investigating Wednesday.

“The grass had already caught into one of those junipers (trees),” Bass said.

He said a group was simply watching the fire burn.

“Half a dozen shooters, or a dozen shooters, were kind of standing around watching a fire start, and, anyway, it was just small, but it took off real fast,” Bass explained. “Nobody was trying to put it out.”

Bass said he told the group they needed to report the fire, which he said they did.

According to Bass, firefighters arrived within 20 minutes, but powerful winds eventually carried the fire back over the mountain toward his property, and crews later told him and his wife to evacuate.

“I thought we were going to lose our house,” Dwayne Bass’s wife, Anna-Marie Bass, said. “Honestly, he (Dwayne) was less concerned, but I was getting mentally prepared that, ‘Okay, we might be coming home to ashes.’”

Hunt said the fire behavior eventually moderated overnight.

Goshen Mayor Steven Staheli said he was thankful for the efforts of firefighters.

“The town of Goshen is just very grateful for the other municipalities and state agencies for coming in and giving us the best chance at suppressing the fire,” Staheli said.

According to Hunt, the fire started on Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration land, and barring a fire restriction, target shooting is legal in those types of areas.

However, Hunt urged target shooters to be cautious where they choose to shoot, especially amid the current dry conditions.

“You don’t want to shoot at rocks, you don’t want to shoot at dry grass,” Hunt said. “Don’t shoot at steel targets.”

Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Ormond said the department regularly patrols the Goshen Canyon area as well as other unincorporated areas of the county and deputies stop and talk to target shooters during those patrols.

“When I was on a county team, I tried to contact target shooters every shift,” Ormond stated via text. “With the amount of area in the county, we rely on the public to call in if they see problems/issues with target shooters to help us.”

Ormond said the department frequently receives calls concerning shooters.

“We always stress being cautious while target shooting, regardless of the time of year but especially with the given circumstances,” Ormond stated. “We love that Utah is a 2^nd Amendment-friendly state. We just ask people to be respectful, responsible, and cautious while target shooting.”

Bass and his wife urged shooters to lean toward practicing at actual, designated target ranges, and said they’d like to see even better policing of problems on public lands, given the potential for hazard.

“All it takes is for one of those little junipers to catch (fire),” Dwayne Bass said. “You can’t put it out.”