UTAH COUNTY, Utah — The Cherry Fire continued to grow Friday, with firefighters estimating it at 450 acres in size along the Right Fork of Hobble Creek Canyon during their last update of the evening.

U.S. Forest Service officials say the wind was a significant factor throughout the day, as it both fueled the flames and took a toll on firefighting efforts.

“With the winds that came in Friday around 2 pm, some of the lighter aircraft had to be shut down due to wind concerns,” said Cortney Davis with USFS’s Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest.

But they were back in rotation by late afternoon as helicopters dipped into Hobble Creek at Jolley’s Ranch - the same area where crews staged to fight the fire.

Davis says those winds largely pushed flames northeast, away from potentially threatened

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