Wildfire!

 

View from the south end of Rocky Point Road

On Thursday, June 19, around 1:20 in the afternoon, I was washing dishes in my kitchen. The kids were playing games in the living room. Sam Clark was over at our house playing on the computer with Alexander. Jessalyn and her boys were hanging out with us. Jan Rushton, who used to be our next-door neighbor and now lives down the hill, texted me and said, "Is the fire close to you?" Fire? I thought. I hadn't seen or heard anything. But then again, all of our blinds and curtains were closed to keep the summer sun out and the cool air-conditioned air in. 

I went in the back yard and looked around. I saw a little bit of smoke to the south of our house, but it was hard to tell through the trees how big or how close it was. I looked out the front door, and couldn't see much more. I decided to get in the car and drive to where I could get a better view and know what was going on. I drove to the top of Rocky Point. I passed several cars driving slowly toward the end of Rocky Point and some driving slowly back down the hill. I parked close to the end of the road and got out and looked. Some people who live there were on their lawn watching the fire. The photo above is what we saw. The flames were just starting to come over the hill on the other side of the gully. I could also see wildland firefighters driving up the road toward it. If you look close in the center of the photo, you can see one of the wildland firefighting trucks heading up the road. 

I wondered if we should evacuate. It didn't seem likely that the fire would get close to our house. If it came our way, the city firetrucks would surely come up on the hill and fight it from Rocky Point to protect the houses. But they would have to go up Canyon Drive, and I didn't want to be in the way of the trucks if they did need to come to our neighborhood to fight the fire. I texted the Walkers who live at the top of Rocky Point. They said they were watching it, but not evacuating yet. I texted the bishop. He said he was watching it from Ginny Christensen's house, who lives on the edge of Skyline, right at the top of the Fremont hill facing the fire. So I decided to stay. 

Around 3:30 I went out on our front porch to watch and try to gain more info on whether or not I should take the kids and leave. A HUGE firefighting plane was circling around our house, preparing to drop fire retardant on the fire. I got a photo, but you can't tell how massive it was. It was like a passenger jet liner full of fire retardant! It flew right over our house once, so close I could read the letters and numbers on its belly!! I took a photo as it was flying over to the fire and dropping the fire retardant, but the photo doesn't do justice to how close and big and crazy it was!! I couldn't believe they could fly such a huge plane so close to the ground. 

The firefighting plane from our front step

Dropping the fire retardant - so close!

Around 3:45, as I was watching the plane, I got an alert on my phone that said, "EVACUATE NOW Rapid moving wildfire..." I didn't read the rest of the message. Later I looked at it more closely and realized that it said to evacuate the neighborhood just west of City Creek, which is over on the hill where the fire was. But I had already decided that we would go to Gran and Grand Dad's house to be out of the way, so when I got the text I said, "Okay kids, time to go!" I sent Sam Clark home and packed up the laundry basket full of clothes I hadn't folded, my overnight bag that had quite a few travel toiletries in it, and a few other things. Jessalyn told Rayden it was time to go, and he was upset about leaving the big kid party. I said he could come to Gran and Grand dad's with us. Jessalyn took Asher and went to their own house. My neighbor saw me packing up and asked if I was evacuating and if they needed to. I said I was going over to my in-laws just as a precaution, and that I didn't think our houses were in any danger. She and her family decided to stay. They were on their front porch keeping an eye on things.

Dallin, Alexander, Rayden and I drove to Gran and Grand's house. I texted Autumn and Grand dad. They said they weren't home, they were traveling, but for me and the kids to make ourselves at home for as long as we needed to. Rayden was really upset about leaving his mom and about the fire. I told him that we could follow Jessalyn home so he could see her and then go to Gran and Grand dad's, but he said no. Dallin showed him the map on his phone as we were going down the hill, and that helped Rayden feel better. 

When we got to the top of Center Street, I parked the car so we could all get out and look at it. We showed Rayden where the fire is and where our house is and showed him that it's safe. I took some photos of the fire from across the valley:

The fire from Center Street

Red arrow pointing to our neighborhood, yellow arrow pointing to the neighborhood that was evacuated

I sent the photo with the arrows on it to people who were asking if we were okay or asking about the evacuation. It was really interesting to see it from the other side of town. Around this time, the wind had spread the fire further than the firefighters expected and it kept flaring up, so they were a little worried it would get to the houses, but they actually got it under control pretty quickly, and it didn't move any further, or much further, than you can see in these photos.

Dallin, Al, Rayden and I hung out in Gran and Grand dad's house for an hour or so - long enough for the boys to watch the movie Bolt in the theater room. Scott was at work when the fire started. I texted him that we were going to Gran and Grand dad's house. He wanted to go home and chill in his basement, so he went to our house shortly after we left. He took photos of the fire from Fremont Street as he was going up the hill:

View from Fremont Street around 4:15

Scott texted our family group chat and said, "It burned half the mountain, but stopped at the road pretty clean. Pretty wild looking, actually."

After the movie, we took Rayden home and went back to our house. Just a little adventure to make things interesting for a day!