TOOELE COUNTY, Utah -- A fire investigator is digging throughthree separate brush fires, all within 10 miles of each other, to see what caused them.
Spokesman for North Tooele County Fire, Ryan Wilden, told Fox13 News that under the circumstances, they are investigating these fires as suspicious.
“Just due to the nature of three fires within close proximity of each other that’s a suspicion of ours,” Wilden said.
The fires flared up off mile markers 109, 107 and 99 this afternoon and put a strain on multiple fire agency resources. The fires also shut down one lane of traffic on I-80 eastbound for about 30 minutes.
“Being out on the highway it’s always dangerous for accidents and things of that nature,” Wilden said.
Extra crews were called to the fires due to how close they came to structures, but luckily, no buildings or people were injured.
Wilden didn’t want to speculate, but he believes there’s a chance this incident could have been caused intentionally.
“It’s not uncommon for fires of this nature to be started from cigarette butts that are thrown out the window in the case if it were fireworks...at this point, we don’t know if they are,” Wilden said.
