Weber Fire District Chief Britt Clark told the Standard-Examiner on Monday afternoon that the Middle Fork Fire saw quick growth in its first day but had largely died down in its second.

“The Middle Fork Fire came in Saturday afternoon,” he said. “It quickly rose from its start to by the end of the day, it was around 340 acres, pushed a little bit by that storm front that came through. We worked all night Saturday night into Sunday morning and established a dozer line around the whole thing.”

He said by Sunday, containment was up to 75% and that things continued in that direction on Monday.

“As of this morning, we pretty much have full containment,” he said. “We’re going to be releasing assets off of it this afternoon and we’ll be watching it for the next couple of days, but it’s looking really good. We had some helicopters in that did a lot of work, we had some hand crews that did a lot of work and we’re feeling pretty confident that it’s extinguished.”

Clark said around 345 acres were burned and that no homes or other properties were threatened directly over the course of the fire.

“We were a bit concerned about the power lines going through,” he said. “As of yesterday, there was no damage to those lines. The power company is still looking them over, but definitely no significant damage.”

He said the cause of the fire is under investigation, but that there is an element that is clear at this time.

“It was definitely human caused,” he said. “The fire started in a wild land management area that’s managed by (the Utah Division of) Forestry, Fire & State Lands, so they’re leading the investigation. We’ll know more here in a few days as they work through that. They’re up there interviewing people today about it.”

Clark said the Middle Fork Fire is a a clear sign that the public needs to be extremely careful with how significant the fire danger currently is in the region.

“This fire is definitely an indication and validation of where we are right now with fire in the area,” he said. “The fire behavior in this fire was very similar to fire behavior we would see at the end of July into August. I would just urge people to be extremely careful and to listen to the firework restrictions and fire restrictions. Be careful shooting guns — if’ you’re going to shoot guns, go to ranges. Just be very careful because the fire danger is so high and it’s only going to get worse as we go on.”

He noted that responders, in addition to the Weber Fire District, included resources from Hill Air Force Base, Northview Fire District, Washington Terrace, the U.S. Forrest Service and Forestry, Fire & State Lands.