The fire, which started Friday night and sent smoke and ash billowing over Utah County throughout Saturday, grew rapidly at times Saturday due to wind, according to Utah Forestry Fire and State Lands spokeswoman Kelly Wickens. 

Prior to an 8 p.m. update, Eureka residents were on READY status and were told to have a go-bag and be ready to leave. At 6:15 p.m. Saturday, the fire reached two miles from Eureka, prompting the evacuation of ranches north of the city. 

“The sheriff is evacuating now. The fire is less than half a mile from the next trigger point for Eureka,” Wickens said at 6:15 p.m. “So in a half mile we’ll be evacuating Eureka.” 

Homansville Road to U.S. 6 was also closed Saturday evening.

Wickens said the fire started at 10:45 p.m. Friday on private land and grew onto BLM land overnight. She said ground firefighters responded Friday night, and three helicopters arrived Saturday morning along with additional ground resources. 

Aircraft have been combating the fire, but high winds forced the grounding of helicopters Saturday evening, according to Wickens. Scoopers are being brought in that will take water from Utah Lake. 

On Sunday, command will transition from the Type 4 incident management team to a complex incident management team, according to Wickens. 

“We are on day one,” Wickens said. “As the complexity has increased, we will likely be looking at a multi-day event.”

This story will be updated.