Cottonwood Heights and Holladay have banned fireworks, adopted wildfire building codes, and deployed fuel mitigation crews this summer as Utah recorded its worst wildfire season in eight years.

More than 410 fires have burned over 355,000 acres across the state so far in 2026, according to KSL. The Cottonwood Fire in Beaver County alone burned nearly 96,000 acres and destroyed approximately 150 structures after exploding by 20,000 acres overnight in late June. Gov. Spencer Cox called it potentially the most destructive fire in state history.

The blaze burned roughly 150 miles southwest of Cottonwood Heights. But fire researchers say it illustrates a challenge facing every community along the Wasatch Front's wildland-urban interface.

"Some of our fuel treatments and defensible space concepts are designed for your average fire, not these extreme events," Bradley Washa, a firefighter and professor of wildland resources at Utah State University, told the Salt Lake Tribune in a story published Monday, July 27.

Local protections in place

Cottonwood Heights adopted Ordinance 450 on Tuesday, November 18, 2025, by a unanimous 5-0 council vote. The ordinance implements the Utah Wildland Urban Interface Code required by House Bill 48, passed in the 2025 legislative session, and adopts a WUI map assigning structure exposure scores from 5 to 10 to properties in the city's fire-prone zones. The city also passed Ordinance 466, designating areas permanently closed to fireworks and other ignition sources based on historical hazard conditions.

For the Pioneer Day holiday, Cottonwood Heights banned all personal fireworks citywide from July 22 through July 25. Holladay prohibited fireworks east of 1300 East during the same window. Residents can report illegal fireworks to the Unified Police Department non-emergency line at (801) 840-4000.

UFA mitigation work

The Unified Fire Authority's wildland Initial Attack crew, established in 2019, covers 15 municipalities and all unincorporated Salt Lake County land. The crew consists of a module leader and two squads of five to six firefighters each, performing daily fuels mitigation projects, wildfire risk assessments, and community education.

At the Holladay City Council meeting on Thursday, June 4, UFA Captain Dan Brown reported that a recent walk of Knudsen Park identified dead trees and overgrowth in the southwest corner. Brown told the council he had been seeking mitigation work for the fuels crew, a wildland team of 10 personnel and a supervisor. The full scope of planned work at Knudsen Park has not been publicly detailed.

The bigger picture

Researchers disagree on how much traditional prevention can accomplish as climate change intensifies fire conditions. Dominik Kulakowski, a professor of geography at Clark University, told the Tribune that megafires can send embers roughly a mile, overwhelming defensible space. Larissa Yocom, a fire ecology professor at Utah State, said fuel management still makes a difference in most conditions but acknowledged extreme fires can overwhelm ground-level efforts.

The threat is not abstract. As we reported July 28, the Cottonwood Heights City Council is scheduled to tour Fire Station 108, which faces staffing cuts if a proposed property tax increase fails at the August 11 Truth in Taxation hearing.

UFA's interactive 2026 fireworks restrictions map is available online, showing prohibited areas across the Salt Lake Valley.