Utah wildfire season is upon us. The weather is extremely hot and dry, with the humidity nearing zero.
Blake and I experienced a wildfire near our home this past weekend.
It began Thursday mid-morning when a small fire was started on the mountain behind our home by a couple of individuals out target shooting. Due to lack of equipment to combat this fire, it immediately began spreading and ultimately destroyed over 6,000 acres of land. It's amazing to me that no houses or structures were burned.
While at work on Friday morning, I received a call about needing to evacuate from our home immediately. Within an instant of the call my heart was pumping and I was filled with rage at these careless individuals. My home and possessions were being threatened due to a lack of common sense and precaution. Just two weeks before a fire had been started near this same area by another target shooter, and twenty fires this year alone have been started by target shooting. Clearly, a responsible person would recognize this pattern and use extra caution.
I left work and arrived home as my husband was organizing and trying to figure out what we should pack.
What do you even take when you're told to evacuate? We had no idea.
We ended up packing photo albums, wedding pictures and videos, precious jewelry and keepsake items. We grabbed our diplomas, identification cards and Social Security cards. We prepped our pets for the trip, and I was able to talk my husband into packing a few items of clothing.
After we finished packing, I hopped on the city website and saw that we were moved from the mandatory evacuation zone to the optional/potential evacuation zone. We decided to stay packed and just wait it out at home.
We spent the majority of the day at home or wandering around town watching the fire consume the mountain. By the time we came back home for the night our house smelled like a giant campfire. We both felt like we were just covered in ash, and Indiana smelled like we had been camping for a week.
Saturday was another smoke-filled day. The fire was originally heading east away from our house. We awoke to the fire beginning to climb west back towards us. We spent the day monitoring the burn pattern through the news and Twitter updates (by the way, Twitter is absolutely amazing for up-to-date news - very impressive). I don't think I have ever been so involved and interested in the local news as I was this past weekend.
Late Saturday afternoon all evacuations were called off and everyone was allowed to head back home. At this time, I decided it was pretty safe to unpack all of our items and attempt to clear the house of the campfire smell.
Today we awoke to the fire being 80% contained. Although there is still a bit left to work on, the firefighters have done such an amazing job at keeping my home and community safe. I am truly grateful for all of them.
This city and community is wonderful.
Throughout the town, people were opening their homes for evacuees to come shower and sleep. Opening their homes to complete strangers. The community came together and organized lunches and dinners for all of the firemen and women. At one point, the red cross had to begin turning away donations because they had received so much.
I live in an amazing place, and I'm grateful this fire has nearly passed.
Hopefully our town will be wildfire free for the remainder of the Summer.
-Jess
