County crews credited with limiting damage in Forsyth fire; council told two hospitals planned nearby

A Rockville fire department representative told the Rockville Town Council that crews responded to a wildfire near Forsyth that began on June 19 and ultimately destroyed 13 structures, but that local and county responders prevented wider loss.

The fire department representative said county and volunteer resources were at the scene before federal resources arrived, with two engines and a wildland crew working continuously as winds increased. "The crews did a great job," the representative said. "We did lose 13 structures, but there could have been a lot more had we not brought the resources up there." The speaker added defensible space around homes was a decisive factor in protecting many houses.

The representative described the pattern of damage as concentrated in a neighborhood accessed by the Branding Iron Road, with brush and trees close to homes cited as increasing vulnerability. The speaker noted that some of the lost structures appeared to be outbuildings while most were residential, saying, "I think there's only 3 or 4 that were outbuildings and then the rest were [homes]," and prefaced that count with "don't quote me on this." A councilmember thanked the crews for their work during the incident.

Council members also heard the department's summary of July 4 fireworks enforcement and other recent incidents. The representative said fireworks caused 13 separate fires in the region on July 4, primarily in La Verkin and Hurricane. Local patrols and added brush trucks were deployed on the Fourth to monitor high‑risk areas.

In the same report, the speaker said two hospitals are proposed in the Hurricane area. "The first one's gonna be south of Walmart, and it's not an Intermountain hospital. It's called Zion Regional Medical Center," the fire department representative said, and described that facility as planned to include a five‑story patient tower and an emergency department. The speaker said the town’s fire‑marshal office will be involved with preplanning and response coordination but that the state fire marshal typically handles hospital preplans. The representative added a second planned facility — described as a "micro hospital" by a company based in Texas — is proposed near I‑15 by a liquor store; fewer details were available for that project.

On hospital timing the representative said the larger facility south of the Walmart "told us that they want to be open by the end of 2027," while permitting and other approvals are still in process. The speaker emphasized that emergency crews will both accept patients at new facilities and transfer patients as needed between hospitals.

Councilmembers asked follow‑up questions about investigation details for a separate utility pole fire and thanked local citizens who assisted before crews arrived. No formal action was taken on the items in this report; the presentation was informational.