DUTCH JOHN, UTAH — Weather assisted firefighters Tuesday on the Sunny Cove Fire as they continued to cut and improve fire line and extinguish hot spots with the assistance of a heavy helicopter and bulldozer gaining 20 percent containment.

Based on more accurate mapping the acreage has been updated to approximately 85 acres.

Richard Howe, Incident Commander stated, “Firefighters took full advantage of the weather today, which reduced fire behavior, to make some great gains on containment and continued to extinguish hot spots with the assistance of the heavy helicopter.”

The Sunny Cove Fire ignited by lightning on July 17th and is located approximately 3 miles NW of Dutch John, Utah. As of 8:38 p.m. Tuesday, there are three hand crews, three fire engines, one bulldozer, two helicopters, with a total of 97 firefighters assigned to the fire.

The Mustang Ridge Campground at Flaming Gorge Reservoir was evacuated for public safety and an area closure is in place for access roads to the Mustang Ridge Campground and Mustang Ridge Boat Launch.

The video below was taken by the Flaming Gorge Resort on July 17 shortly after the fire started.

Updates can be found on the Ashley National Forest Facebook page.