However, fire officials are asking for better cooperation from the community as the Buckley Draw Fire grew to an estimated 446 acres in the mountains above Provo.

A fifth drone incursion since the fire started forced yet another temporary grounding of aircraft Wednesday afternoon, while the U.S. Forest Service is struggling to keep people from traveling into restricted areas of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest.

Northern Utah Type 3 Incident Management Team spokesperson Sierra Hellstrom said the lack of compliance is not helpful to the firefighters who are dealing with treacherous terrain that will likely keep the fire burning longer than most wildfires along the Wasatch Front.

“We’ve got firefighters risking their lives and in very dangerous situations already, especially here; these are more hazardous conditions than most fires,” Hellstrom said. “People keep asking, ‘What can we do to help?’ They want to bring donations. And honestly, the thing that they can do to help is to follow the closures and restrictions so that our firefighters can do their job safely.”

The fifth drone incursion occurred on the eastern flank of the fire, and Hellstrom said law enforcement is actively seeking to catch the perpetrator.

She said drone operators are required to check FAA temporary flight restrictions. She added that this fire has had the most incursions she’s seen on the job and that they are a risk to firefighters by temporarily leaving them without air support due to necessary groundings.

“(The incursion) was over on the eastern flank of the fire, which the other ones have all been here along the Provo side of the fire,” Hellstrom said. “So I think this one makes us wonder if it’s someone who thought that they could sneak around the backside and wouldn’t be as visible or get caught if they were up on the less populated portion of the fire.”

In the mountains, the Y trail, Slate Canyon trailhead and Hobble Creek Road are three closed areas the U.S. Forest Service is still seeing people go into, Hellstrom said.

Hikers in Slate Canyon have run into firefighters working up there, while one driver at Hobble Creek Road went into a closed area and got locked inside the gate.

“He was rather upset with some of the firefighters on the ground because he didn’t know it was closed,” Hellstrom said.

“We don’t know if the public is up there,” she added. “And if that fire were to catch a wind and make a run, it’s impossible for us to know who’s up on the mountain and to evacuate people. … People need to make sure that they are going to the proper sources before they venture out into the forest.”

The cooperation issues come as firefighters deal with “knife-like cliffs” that are impossible to get around, according to Hellstrom.

Two crews are at the top of the mountain and working the eastern perimeter, but it’s expected to be a long-duration fire due to the geography.

“It makes it hard to increase containment when we cannot get to the perimeter of the fire,” Hellstrom said. “It has crested that ridge and is pushing its way over that eastern perimeter to the other side. It’s up in heavy timber, which also creates another level of difficulty as timber burns hotter and longer than the grassy portions of the fire over here on the western perimeter.”