Heat, drought spark wildfires

Extreme heat and dry, windy conditions fueled several wildfires in the West on June 21, including an uncontained blaze in Utah that forced the evacuation of a small town southwest of Salt Lake City.

The Iron Fire in Utah’s Juab County was first detected on June 20 and had blackened 34 square miles, authorities said. The fire about 70 miles southwest of Salt Lake City forced the evacuation of Eureka, population 1,000 and people at a nearby ranch.

No homes had been lost, and UTAH Fire Info, a multiagency operation, said in a post on X that firefighters conducted a successful backburn operation to protect the town.

Kelly Wickens, a fire prevention specialist with the Utah Division of Forestry Fire and State Lands, warned that the fire was continuing to grow amid drought conditions. Wickens said the fire was human-caused and remains under investigation.

Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox visited the town on June 21.

“We knew that there was going to be extreme fire danger, and sure enough we had multiple fires,” Cox said.

The Iron Fire was one of six fires burning in Utah at varying levels of containment.

A wildfire prompted evacuations over the weekend near Sedona, Arizona, burning about 300 acres of steep and rugged terrain near Oak Creek Canyon. By the afternoon of June 21, about 300 fire personnel were fighting the blaze, which remained uncontained.

Much of the Western U.S. from the Rockies to the Pacific coast saw above-average temperatures in mid-June with even hotter weather anticipated for the days ahead. Officials warned that the prolonged dry, hot weather and relatively low humidity increased the risk of fire danger.

Much of Utah is experiencing severe to extreme drought, while parts of Arizona and Colorado are experiencing severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Temperatures were expected to climb in the Southwest on June 21, with a forecast of up to 108 degrees Fahrenheit in Carlsbad, New Mexico.

ARIZONA

3 die from heat-related illness

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK — Three hikers died from apparent heat-related illnesses in the Grand Canyon on two separate days in the inner canyon, where temperatures can exceed 109 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade during midday hours, federal officials said on June 19.

A 72-year-old man became ill from the heat on June 12 while hiking the South Kaibab Trail and died before rescue crews could reach him. Four days later, a 67-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman also appeared to suffer from heat-related illnesses while hiking the North Kaibab Trail and died before help arrived, the U.S. National Park Service said in a statement.

Despite a rapid response and aerial support, all three hikers were dead by the time first responders reached them, the park service said.

The Grand Canyon has seen an uptick in heat-related illnesses in June, park officials advised people to avoid hiking in the middle of the day.

The National Weather Service issued an extreme heat watch for June 22 and 23, with the mercury is expected to reach 110 degrees Fahrenheit at Phantom Ranch. Temperatures at the canyon rim can be 20 to 25 degrees cooler than at the bottom, officials said.

OKLAHOMA

Pastor exits GOP runoff

Jackson Lahmeyer, an Oklahoma megachurch minister who founded Pastors for Trump, withdrew from a runoff for a U.S. House seat from Oklahoma, following reports that he had sent romantic text messages to a woman who is not his wife.

A day after advancing to the August runoff, Lahmeyer issued a statement on June 17 saying that he had made the “difficult decision” to suspend his campaign “after prayerful consideration with my wife, Kendra and my team over the last twenty-four hours.”

Lahmeyer’s email statement announcing his withdrawal hit inboxes just minutes after President Donald Trump endorsed his runoff opponent, Mark Tedford, a state representative in Oklahoma.

A day before the June 16 Oklahoma primary, Trump had reiterated his support for Lahmeyer, whom he initially endorsed in May, commending him for founding Pastors for Trump.

The Daily Mail reported on June 14 that Lahmeyer had exchanged thousands of romantic text messages with a woman who worked as a fundraiser for his campaign. Multiple news organizations reported that Lahmeyer acknowledged his behavior in a now-deleted social media post, saying the matter “was already dealt with privately” and that he owned “crossing a boundary line through text messaging.”

TEXAS

Honeybees escape after crash

Millions of honeybees escaped into a rural Texas neighborhood after a semitrailer carrying about 400 hives tipped over, officials said.

Emergency officials in Orange County, Texas, shut down roads in the area on the morning of June 21 and warned residents to stay in their homes while crews worked to unload the trailer and salvage as many hives as possible. The county is located east of Houston and borders Louisiana.

No bee stings or serious injuries were immediately reported. 

Christie Ray, who owns nearby Queen Bee Supply, said volunteers from three or four other beekeeping businesses in the area went to the crash scene to help.

“They just help each other, that’s what they do,” Ray said. “The beekeeping community is a great community.”

Chris Moore, owner of Moore Honey, along with his son and several employees, joined the effort to help the bees, but he estimated that only about a quarter of the 408 hives will survive. It mostly depends on how many queens remain alive after the crash, he said.

It’s common for large beekeeping operations to move hives around the country to provide commercial pollination for agriculture in places like California and to follow blooming seasons throughout the South and the Midwest for honey production.

The hives that crashed had only traveled a few miles on a trip to North Dakota when the truck driver took a wrong turn and ended up in a neighborhood with narrow roads, Moore said. The driver was trying to navigate a tight corner when the trailer fell over.