The Bonneville Fire broke out Saturday evening near the mouth of Red Butte Canyon in Salt Lake City and had grown to an estimated 200 acres by late Saturday night. The Salt Lake City Fire Department was on scene as the fire burned above the University of Utah's medical campus and pushed the university to tell everyone on campus to shelter in place.
The public safety alert was blunt: stay in your room or area, and wait for updates when the order is lifted. Chad Jepperson said no buildings are threatened, but the campus still saw some voluntary evacuations as crews worked around the fire's edge.
The size of the fire and the campus response made it a problem beyond the canyon itself. Red Butte Garden's arboretum and the Natural History Museum of Utah were closed because of smoke and guest safety concerns, while several road closures were reported in the far east portion of the campus and several hiking trails were closed to the public.
Crews focused most of their effort on the south end of the fire to keep it from spreading into the gardens. Officials also asked the public to avoid the area and not fly drones nearby, a sign that the concern was not only the flames but the airspace and access around them.
That is the part that leaves the clearest question: if no buildings are threatened, the campus can still stay in a shelter-in-place posture until firefighters are satisfied the fire will not move closer to the medical campus or the gardens. No end time was given, and the order remains in effect until the next update goes out.
