The Rocky Canyon Fire pushed evacuation orders into parts of Morgan and Summit counties on Sunday after growing to 2,800 acres with no containment. Residents from Whites Crossing to East Canyon Dam were told to leave, and a second order covered West Henefer between Hog Back Summit County and West Henefer Road.
The timing made the fire hard to ignore. It started on Friday, crews spent Saturday trying to hold its edge with dozers, road work, line construction and aviation, and by Sunday it was still burning without a containment line in place. That left people searching for where to go, with a shelter set up at Morgan High School's Trojan Century Center at 699 E. Young St. in Morgan.
East Canyon State Park had already said on Saturday that the fire triggered evacuation orders for the north end of the park, including Dixie Creek Campground and Day-Use areas. The order widened the footprint of the fire beyond one ridge line and into places where visitors and nearby residents would have had little time to react once the fire moved.
What made the situation sharper was that firefighters were also carrying out a burn operation while homes from Whites Crossing to East Canyon Dam may have been affected. Utah Fire Info urged residents to stay alert, follow instructions from emergency personnel and avoid entering the burn-operation area, a warning that reflected how close suppression work and evacuation zones had become.
State Route 66 was closed to all traffic as crews responded to the fire, and State Route 65 from Henefer was also shut. The closures slowed access in the same corridor where evacuation orders were being issued, and the cause of the fire remained under investigation. For the people under order on Sunday, the immediate question was not how the fire started, but how long the lines around it would keep holding.
