Fire around 4 p.m.
Fire around 5 p.m. It had spread this far in just under an hour. Heading down eastern flank towards the Cove.
The fire up top around 7: 20 p.m.
Fire up top around 7:30 p.m.
Fire along the whole mountain range around 11 p.m.herriman fire--pictures
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Fire around 4 p.m.Fire around 5 p.m. It had spread this far in just under an hour. Heading down eastern flank towards the Cove.The fire up top around 7: 20 p.m.Fire up top around 7:30 p.m. Fire along the whole mountain range around 11 p.m.
herriman fire--sept. 19: part 1
I'm finally getting around to writing about the fire in Herriman (I know, I know...it's been a long wait, but it is finally here!).
It was a calm Sunday afternoon with no chaos to behold. Earlier in the day I had gone to church. Upon going to church I had noticed a hint of smoke in the air, just enough to smell, but there was no fire in sight. Smelling smoke in the air is common once in fire season, so I didn't think much of it. In fact, that smoky smell may not have been from our fire at all because it was so early in the day.
After church I went home and took a nap. Upon waking I heard the sound of fire engines racing up the Canyon. Uh oh...that can't be good. Any sirens going up the Canyon is never a good sign. So I raced outside to see what was going on...
And there it was...a great plume of smoke rising to the west of my house (actually, it was more southwest I believe). Then I hear the sound of a helicopter flying overhead, carrying those large dumping buckets of water. Yep, this was definitely not good. It was about 4 p.m. at this point.
I run inside and proclaim that there is a fire in the Canyon. Everyone was asleep, but upon my exclamation jumped out of bed immediately. We all then proceeded to go outside and look at the fire for a while. The smoke dark and created this huge cloud above that part of the Canyon (in the Camp Williams direction).
The winds had picked up earlier that day, so we became very concerned about how fast the fire would spread and go out of control. Thinking it wasn't much of a concern yet, we didn't prep for leaving.
Around 5 p.m. the fire got worse. The wind was so bad that it had carried it behind Step Mountain heading northeast towards the Cove. I remember seeing the smoke rising heavily behind Step Mountain. All it would take was a change in the wind, and the fire would start coming our way. Around 5:30, evacuations were issued for the Cove.
At about 6 p.m. we all sat down to dinner and discussed what we were going to do. About 15 minutes later we call a reverse-911 call ordering us to evacuate. Upon talking to some neighbors we decided not to evacuate right away, but we did start packing up our cars with necessities and valuables so we could take off when we needed to.
My grandpa then insisted upon riding his ATV up the Canyon with a neighbor to see how bad the fire was above us. We didn't even think about the fire blazing below us (the smoke didn't look as bad as it did earlier). So grandpa left and was out of contact for about an hour. He then called and told us the fire up top wasn't that bad, but that we should be ready just in case. Then about 20 minutes later (around 7 or 7:30 p.m., I can't remember) he called and said we needed to get serious about leaving because he could see flames coming over the mountain above.
He got back at about 8 p.m. and proceeded to help my grandmother pack. My sister and her husband had shown up around 6 p.m. and were there helping us pack our cars. We continued to pack after grandpa came back and then we realized something...how were we going to get the horses down. Because we ride the horses in the Canyon, we never needed a horse trailer. How we desperately needed one then.
We had been in contact with my mom, and she suggested we call a family friend who had a horse trailer to come help us. So my mom and the friend drove up here only to be turned away. The way my mom described it was really crazy. They had talked to the chief fire Marshall and were asking how they could get up. The fire Marshall was kind of choked up when he explained to them that they couldn't let anyone up now...they were starting to lose homes to the fire. Very frustrated, they were forced to wait at the bottom of the Canyon.
Upon this news, my grandpa got really upset and kind of lost his cool. By this time it was around 9 p.m. and we still didn't know how were going to get the horses down. We couldn't walk them down because we needed drivers for the cars; plus, walking down would have taken too long. Our neighbor hearing up our predicament offered his horse trailer (he had given his horses away a year or two ago). So we then very hurriedly got the horses ready to load up. By this time I was starting to worry.
The smoke was starting to blow down our way, so I spent the rest of the evening with a bandana on covering my face. The smoke was really bad and I kept coughing sporadically.
It was 9:30 before we started loading the horses. At around 10 p.m. a police officer pulled up in his truck. Me and my brother-in-law walked up to his truck. He asked how soon we were leaving. We said about 20 minutes, we just had to finish loading up the horses. He then said: "If you've got 20, do it in 15. You've got to get out of here now!" I started to somewhat panic then...I had been doing pretty good at staying calm up until that point. So we run and tell grandpa, and then much to our dismay we find out my grandma's car battery died. She had left the car on so my niece wouldn't suffocate. Of all times...ugh.
We finally got everything loaded, and all the cars running (including my grandma's after a jump-start) and took off. From where we were at we could not tell how bad the fire was below. Had we been able to see what was going on below us, we would have left a lot sooner (we officially left at about 11 p.m.).
Driving down I could see the glow of the fire behind Step Mountain, but the mountain was blocking my view of the actual fire. About a quarter of the way down I was able to see past the mountain...and what I saw just astonished me...
The whole mountainside was on fire!!! All around the Cove and beyond. I could not believe what I was seeing. Now I understood why the police officer was so urgent to get us out. It wasn't the fire above that was the threat, but the fire below. They had been afraid the fire would jump and cut across the Canyon, which would have blocked us in. Then we would have been trapped between the fire above and the one below.
I will never forget that drive down the Canyon. When I got further down I then saw the horrible sight of houses burning. I could pick out three of them (we thought that it had to be more because of how bad the fire was). I felt so sick...just thinking about those people, those families who had just lost their homes and everything.
A thought then entered my mind. I thought about how I was driving away from my home, and how I might wake up tomorrow morning without that home and only with what I managed to throw into my car.
The drive down was somewhat chaotic. There were police cars and fire engines everywhere! Every intersection, stop sign, stop light, and in-between. They weren't letting anyone up. There were tons of people standing on the sidewalks and streets just gazing at the blazing fire above.
Once we got the bottom of the Canyon we rendezvoused and communicated where everyone was going. My sister and her husband were going to go to there place and grab a few more things. Grandpa was going to follow my mom and the friend back down so he could board the horses at her house. The rest of us were to go the the other house across the Valley. Then we drove off.
A few minutes later I pulled off to the side of the road to take some pictures. I still was in shock at what I was seeing. It was like the mountain had turned into a volcano and was spewing lava out of every crevice.
Evacuations were supposed to go the the Herriman Middle School next the Butterfield park and the rodeo grounds. The park was going to be used to house the large livestock that most people own up the Canyon (horses, cattle, sheep, etc.). However, the fire had gotten so out of control that it started heading towards the park and school, so the evacuations were then moved to the new Herriman High School and large livestock to somewhere in West Jordan, I believe.
We didn't get to the other house until about 12:30 p.m. Me and my grandma unpacked the car while we waited for grandpa, my sister, and her husband to join us. Grandma then went to bed with my niece and I waited. Grandpa came, unloaded some stuff, and then went shopping for some food. Shortly after, my sister and her husband showed up. Around 2 a.m. we went to sleep. I was so exhausted that I didn't even bother to change my clothes.
Because of the length of this post I'm going to post the pictures in a separately. I will write part 2 soon.
It was a calm Sunday afternoon with no chaos to behold. Earlier in the day I had gone to church. Upon going to church I had noticed a hint of smoke in the air, just enough to smell, but there was no fire in sight. Smelling smoke in the air is common once in fire season, so I didn't think much of it. In fact, that smoky smell may not have been from our fire at all because it was so early in the day.
After church I went home and took a nap. Upon waking I heard the sound of fire engines racing up the Canyon. Uh oh...that can't be good. Any sirens going up the Canyon is never a good sign. So I raced outside to see what was going on...
And there it was...a great plume of smoke rising to the west of my house (actually, it was more southwest I believe). Then I hear the sound of a helicopter flying overhead, carrying those large dumping buckets of water. Yep, this was definitely not good. It was about 4 p.m. at this point.
I run inside and proclaim that there is a fire in the Canyon. Everyone was asleep, but upon my exclamation jumped out of bed immediately. We all then proceeded to go outside and look at the fire for a while. The smoke dark and created this huge cloud above that part of the Canyon (in the Camp Williams direction).
The winds had picked up earlier that day, so we became very concerned about how fast the fire would spread and go out of control. Thinking it wasn't much of a concern yet, we didn't prep for leaving.
Around 5 p.m. the fire got worse. The wind was so bad that it had carried it behind Step Mountain heading northeast towards the Cove. I remember seeing the smoke rising heavily behind Step Mountain. All it would take was a change in the wind, and the fire would start coming our way. Around 5:30, evacuations were issued for the Cove.
At about 6 p.m. we all sat down to dinner and discussed what we were going to do. About 15 minutes later we call a reverse-911 call ordering us to evacuate. Upon talking to some neighbors we decided not to evacuate right away, but we did start packing up our cars with necessities and valuables so we could take off when we needed to.
My grandpa then insisted upon riding his ATV up the Canyon with a neighbor to see how bad the fire was above us. We didn't even think about the fire blazing below us (the smoke didn't look as bad as it did earlier). So grandpa left and was out of contact for about an hour. He then called and told us the fire up top wasn't that bad, but that we should be ready just in case. Then about 20 minutes later (around 7 or 7:30 p.m., I can't remember) he called and said we needed to get serious about leaving because he could see flames coming over the mountain above.
He got back at about 8 p.m. and proceeded to help my grandmother pack. My sister and her husband had shown up around 6 p.m. and were there helping us pack our cars. We continued to pack after grandpa came back and then we realized something...how were we going to get the horses down. Because we ride the horses in the Canyon, we never needed a horse trailer. How we desperately needed one then.
We had been in contact with my mom, and she suggested we call a family friend who had a horse trailer to come help us. So my mom and the friend drove up here only to be turned away. The way my mom described it was really crazy. They had talked to the chief fire Marshall and were asking how they could get up. The fire Marshall was kind of choked up when he explained to them that they couldn't let anyone up now...they were starting to lose homes to the fire. Very frustrated, they were forced to wait at the bottom of the Canyon.
Upon this news, my grandpa got really upset and kind of lost his cool. By this time it was around 9 p.m. and we still didn't know how were going to get the horses down. We couldn't walk them down because we needed drivers for the cars; plus, walking down would have taken too long. Our neighbor hearing up our predicament offered his horse trailer (he had given his horses away a year or two ago). So we then very hurriedly got the horses ready to load up. By this time I was starting to worry.
The smoke was starting to blow down our way, so I spent the rest of the evening with a bandana on covering my face. The smoke was really bad and I kept coughing sporadically.
It was 9:30 before we started loading the horses. At around 10 p.m. a police officer pulled up in his truck. Me and my brother-in-law walked up to his truck. He asked how soon we were leaving. We said about 20 minutes, we just had to finish loading up the horses. He then said: "If you've got 20, do it in 15. You've got to get out of here now!" I started to somewhat panic then...I had been doing pretty good at staying calm up until that point. So we run and tell grandpa, and then much to our dismay we find out my grandma's car battery died. She had left the car on so my niece wouldn't suffocate. Of all times...ugh.
We finally got everything loaded, and all the cars running (including my grandma's after a jump-start) and took off. From where we were at we could not tell how bad the fire was below. Had we been able to see what was going on below us, we would have left a lot sooner (we officially left at about 11 p.m.).
Driving down I could see the glow of the fire behind Step Mountain, but the mountain was blocking my view of the actual fire. About a quarter of the way down I was able to see past the mountain...and what I saw just astonished me...
The whole mountainside was on fire!!! All around the Cove and beyond. I could not believe what I was seeing. Now I understood why the police officer was so urgent to get us out. It wasn't the fire above that was the threat, but the fire below. They had been afraid the fire would jump and cut across the Canyon, which would have blocked us in. Then we would have been trapped between the fire above and the one below.
I will never forget that drive down the Canyon. When I got further down I then saw the horrible sight of houses burning. I could pick out three of them (we thought that it had to be more because of how bad the fire was). I felt so sick...just thinking about those people, those families who had just lost their homes and everything.
A thought then entered my mind. I thought about how I was driving away from my home, and how I might wake up tomorrow morning without that home and only with what I managed to throw into my car.
The drive down was somewhat chaotic. There were police cars and fire engines everywhere! Every intersection, stop sign, stop light, and in-between. They weren't letting anyone up. There were tons of people standing on the sidewalks and streets just gazing at the blazing fire above.
Once we got the bottom of the Canyon we rendezvoused and communicated where everyone was going. My sister and her husband were going to go to there place and grab a few more things. Grandpa was going to follow my mom and the friend back down so he could board the horses at her house. The rest of us were to go the the other house across the Valley. Then we drove off.
A few minutes later I pulled off to the side of the road to take some pictures. I still was in shock at what I was seeing. It was like the mountain had turned into a volcano and was spewing lava out of every crevice.
Evacuations were supposed to go the the Herriman Middle School next the Butterfield park and the rodeo grounds. The park was going to be used to house the large livestock that most people own up the Canyon (horses, cattle, sheep, etc.). However, the fire had gotten so out of control that it started heading towards the park and school, so the evacuations were then moved to the new Herriman High School and large livestock to somewhere in West Jordan, I believe.
We didn't get to the other house until about 12:30 p.m. Me and my grandma unpacked the car while we waited for grandpa, my sister, and her husband to join us. Grandma then went to bed with my niece and I waited. Grandpa came, unloaded some stuff, and then went shopping for some food. Shortly after, my sister and her husband showed up. Around 2 a.m. we went to sleep. I was so exhausted that I didn't even bother to change my clothes.
Because of the length of this post I'm going to post the pictures in a separately. I will write part 2 soon.
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