We Didn't Start the Fire

Sunday night was a crazy night. My sister-in-law, Cassie, is in the Utah Chamber Artists choir and at the last minute my other SIL, Maria, and I decided we wanted to go her concert. When we got there my grandpa was there as Cassie and Koy had brought him along with them. (Earlier that day when Jeremy and I took Logan on a walk, we noticed smoke coming from the mountains. I asked Jeremy where he thought it was coming from and he said “By Koy and Cassie’s house.” And I thought, "Ha ha, very funny.") When we got to the concert and I was talking to Koy he jokingly asked if I knew that his house was going to burn down. My sister Misti had been at their house and had taken pictures of helicopters getting water from the reservoir behind their house to pour on the fire. At this point, it was all light-hearted and kind of a joke. But then, probably an hour later if not less, it wasn’t so funny anymore. Trina was babysitting Koy and Cassie’s kids and was calling Misti, who couldn’t answer because we were in the concert. My mom finally texted Misti to tell her that Trina was leaving with the kids.

Misti tried texting Trina for more information, but didn’t get a response. Then Koy got a text from my BIL Terry telling him that he was going to drive to their house (about a ten minutes drive from his own home) to hose down their backyard. At this point, Koy decided it was time to take his two oldest children and head home. All this time, Cassie is the in the choir and doesn’t know that anything is going on; she thought Koy was taking the kids to the bathroom.

During the intermission Misti told Cassie what was going on, and for the next hour Cassie had to stand there and sing (which she did beautifully) while worrying about the possibility of her home burning down and trying to find out what was going on in between songs. When the concert finally ended (it seemed about ten times as long as it was), Misti took Grandpa home while Maria and I sped Cassie to Trista’s house, because at this point no one was allowed into Herriman. We found out on the way that over 1,200 homes had been evacuated (up from 500 an hour earlier), and the fire was quickly spreading. As we got closer to the area, you could see the fire burning on the hill, and it looked huge. It was like an orange snake moving along the mountain.

As we got closer to Trista’s house the smell of smoke got stronger and stronger, and every now and then we could see ashes coming down. And there was no way to know how close it was to Koy and Cassie’s house or if it was already on fire. The only things we knew specifically was that when Trina went up to check on a coughing Josephine, she looked out the window and could see the flames on the mountain behind their home (good babysitting experience, no?) It was incredibly frightening and stressful and such a helpless feeling.

When I woke up Monday morning the fire still hadn’t been contained, but it was much more under control. I called Koy and he said that he was told by a neighbor that the fire got dangerously close to their house, but it did miss it. He was able to sneak up there later in the day and he said that the streets were covered in ash and the culdesac behind his home had gotten very close to getting caught in the flames. Somehow, with this 3,500 acre fire, only (and I use only lightly) 3 homes were destroyed (thankfully not Koy’s and Cassie’s) and the only injuries were to two firefighters, and they were minor. There will obviously be some smoke damage, but compared to what could have happened, that is a blessing.

It’s amazing how different things seem when you are actually a PART of it. Stories of fires in the news are scary, but they are just stories. You feel for the people whose homes are getting destroyed, but that’s it. When it’s you (or your family), it’s completely different. We saw people stopped on the road, some taking pictures, and I just wanted to tell them it wasn’t just some cool fire to look at, it was real.

The house circled in yellow is my brother's house. You can see by that bit of smoke how close it came to his house.

It was a crazy night. And as of tonight, their home is still one of the 500 homes still under evacuation, so they are staying at my parent's house now. We don't know when they'll be able to go back. The fire is still burning.

For an actual picture of Koy and Cassie's house the night of the fire, go here.