When the residents of Kanosh awoke on the morning of July 6, 2007, it was just another day. Jolene Adams went to work that morning, noting nothing peculiar.

Even when she heard the fire bell ring and hopped into the fire engine, nothing was out of the ordinary. It was just another day in hot southern Utah.

She didn't know the Milford Flat Fire would grow to be the biggest in Utah's history. She was just doing her job.

Volunteers

Aside from her full-time job in Fillmore, Adams is a volunteer firefighter and has been for the last eight years. For her, hearing the bell ring (or getting a phone call) on a hot summer day is just one of those things she expects to happen during the summer.

None of the townsfolk are too concerned when they hear about a fire somewhere in the surrounding area, said Adams, who is known by some as the "town phonebook" because she can recall the names and numbers of many of the town's 500 residents.

Kanosh residents live with the yearly fires just like people in Los Angeles live with gang violence. The only difference is few in Kanosh would want to leave given the chance.

To them, fire isn't so much an adversary as it is an old uncle who comes to stay for a while during the summer, eventually wears out his welcome and leaves.

Adams estimated there were more than 70 fire calls during 2007.

"It's just part of daily activities in the summer," she said casually about the wildfires. "When summer rolls around, people just expect it."

Adams didn't expect much when she rode down to Milford to help put out the fire. She hardly flinched when the volunteer firefighters' attempts did little more than provoke the fire further northeast.

But the farther north and east the fire went, the more serious it became, even to some of the townsfolk accustomed to this yearly ritual. By the next day, the fire had surpassed the resources of the local volunteers, and federal firefighters were called in to try to contain the fire. This also was nothing new for local residents.

Tent city

During major fires, the population of Kanosh doubles in size when firefighters from across the state and country set up camp on the only baseball diamond for miles around.

Far from causing any trouble to the townsfolk, the firefighters mainly keep to themselves. Sometimes they wander into the town's general store to pick up a little food or drink to complement what the federal authorities provide them.

Adams' sister, who works in the store, said so many people coming to the town slightly boosts the town's economy. She said it gives the townspeople something different to look at for a change but hardly upsets anyone.

Depending on the year, dozens or hundreds of tents will be set up in the baseball field as the outpost for any non-local firefighter working to put out whatever wildfire needs putting out at the time. Just a few blocks away, the town hall is used as the command center.

Scott Cory said working with the federal firefighters is usually a smooth operation. Cory is a Kanosh town councilman, a deputy sheriff and the volunteer fire chief and has been fighting fires for 30 years.

He said Kanosh firefighters cover 400 square miles of terrain all on a volunteer basis. He said recently that the area will have one or two Type I or Type II fires each year and hundreds of professional firefighters will come from across the country to fight the fires.

Cory got little sleep during the nine days of the Milford Flat Fire in 2007. Though most of the damage was done in the first two days, it took another seven to slow it down and put it out.

"I've seen some firestorms in my day, but this one scared me," Cory said. "Someone a lot bigger than me stopped that fire, or we'd have been goners."

Ebb and flow

Although the yearly fires are respected as a natural part of the hot Utah summers, it takes its toll on many of the residents. Ranchers and farmers lose cattle and valuable farmland and occasionally a building will be rebuilt.

Along with her husband, Kanosh town treasurer Karen Crook owns 1,500 acres of land scattered around the area. During the Milford Flat Fire, they lost 500 acres of farmland west of Kanosh.

Though many of the ranchers and residents butt heads with the Bureau of Land Management and the federal authorities, Crook said, they were more than willing to help them get back on their feet.

The government spent $24,000 to help the Crooks reseed their land.

"There's not anyone around here that's not grateful for what they've done," Crook said of the government. "They bend over backwards to help."

Even if they hadn't got the help, Crook said there's no one in Kanosh prepared to leave just because of a fire - even the biggest one in Utah's history. She said it was just a natural part of life.

The town's biggest problem isn't the fire, Jolene Adams said jokingly. She said the biggest problem is fitting all the townsfolk in the same church building every Sunday.

Copyright Brigham Young University 1 Jul 2008