Evacuations

Wow. Last night a fire broke out at Camp Williams (a military training base somewhat near my parents) in the afternoon. They thought they had it contained until 50 mile an hour winds woke up and sent the fire racing towards Herriman, a town that we have looked extensively in to buy a house. We could see a huge line of fire from where we live now as it went dark last night...it was amazing. We learned last night that 3 homes in Herriman had burned and that 250 homes had been evacuated, then 500 and when I woke up this morning it was 1600 homes were evacuated. The state officials said that last night was truly miraculous...when then went to bed they fully expected to hear that probably 100 homes had burned but they learned that well trained and prepared firefighters fought and saved the homes. They said that there were soo many homes where the bulldozers had cleared the area right around the home and that all around the home was black but the home itself had been saved. Amazing. No other houses burned last night.

It turns out the worst of the fire was RIGHT next to the home we had put an offer on a few months ago. The owners ended up renting the house instead so we didn't get it, and I have to say I am grateful to not have had to live through evacuations and the fear it would have put into the kids. The kids school is one of the few closed and I have no idea when the evacuation order will be lifted for that area but the fire is still going and while it's okay for the moment any wind gusts and such could make it terrible again. Wow. While I doubt the home itself was in any danger we are hearing that there is extensive smoke damage to homes in the area, not to mention the air quality would have been terrible for our asthmatic daughter and who knows how long we would have been evacuated for, or if we could have gotten anything out, or how the kids would have reacted, etc. I'm grateful to have missed all of that...sooo very grateful.

This is part of the evacuation map....the city inspector has been going house to house to check on damage and this is the current report although I don't think he is done...the large green area is where the houses had landscape damage (melted fences, etc) but the home was okay (the other little green areas are parks), the three red dots are the burned homes, the blue star on the upper left is the house we put an offer on...we've also considered a lot of home off to the right...Some of you have been to the Herriman Lake (we had our daughters bday party there) and wondered if that is where the fire was...yes but not where the homes burned...you can see the lake on the bottom right, the blue star for our almost house is in the upper left. The tanish area is under evacuation but the homes and landscaping were saved. This is all one big hilly area
this is just part of the map...it is amazing what the firefighters were able to save and how quickly this fire moved. Thank heaven for awesomely trained and amazing firefighters!!!

For an interesting picture...last night Daddy went out and took this picture...we are on the complete other end of the valley from the fire, with the temple in between...the fire line was huge!!! On the other side of the hill where the fire is and off to the right is Herriman (you can't see it during the day it's in the Salt Lake Valley and we're in Utah Valley). Crazy!!
We are counting our blessings and taking this opportunity to see how prepared we are. My in-laws house is right at the top of a hill and across the street is dried out grass that is hillsideand just waiting to be burned...it could have been us!! A talk show host on the radio this morning was asking people "if you only had a few minutes to get out of the house what would you grab?" I think now would be a good time to make sure our pictures and family history and family documents are all backed up and that our 72 hour kits are updated and ready to go. Also the cell phone lines were all tied up with people callings their relatives in Herriman to see if they were okay and they had to ask people to STOP CALLING the area :) It made me realize we need a good emergency phone plan so that all family knows we're okay or if we need help. I also heard a guy call in saying that he had to go in and help evacuate their daughter...it made me think what I would grab if I had to head over to my parents or my in-laws and get stuff out. Interesting thoughts. Now is the time to prepare!!!! Bring on the external hard drive I'm ready to fill it up :) And very grateful for our blessings!!