Fire in the Mountain

National news is reporting on the Rockport5 Fire near Park City, Utah.  Well, we have a front row seat. Ralph and I are at Robin’s house which is on the top of the next mountain ridge, about 3 miles away from the blaze.  It began with a lightening strike near Rockport State Park at about 2 p.m. on Tuesday that exploded into flames in the dry terrain.  It was a very small thunderstorm that was gone as quickly as it came and did nothing to put out the flames.

Wednesday morning the fire officials reported that 1,920 acres were burned, 14 houses, 20 outbuildings and several vehicles were destroyed but there were no injuries.  The fire was 20% contained. 250 homes in Rockport Estates, Bridgehollow and Promontory Subdivision were under evacuation order until Thursday evening.

We sat on the deck all Tuesday afternoon until well into the night watching.

There were billows of  black and gray/white smoke.  Black is buildings, trees and cars.  White smoke is sage brush and ground cover.

The TV coverage announced that air transported retardants would arrive in about 10 minutes.  I watched as a huge DC10 tanker flew over to survey the scene and circled back to dump its huge load of red retardant along the top of the next ridge.  Unfortunately my cell phone was down in my bedroom so I missed a most amazing and surprising sight.  The DC10, multiple small planes and helicopters performed a continuous parade, dumping retardant and water on the site.

On our side of that ridge is the Promontory Subdivision, an area of huge and expensive homes.  Had the fire crested the ridge it would have ignited those homes, increased its intensity and moved down the incline, directly toward Robin and Jim’s office and up the other side toward their house.  So we were holding our breathes hoping to not see flames on the crest.

Just before dusk on Tuesday we saw flames shooting up along that ridge.  As luck would have it the DC10 was approaching and dumped its load, extinguishing the flames.  That did put quite a scare in us.  I stayed up until 2 am.  Robin and Jim were still up, working in their home office which had windows overlooking the fire, when I went to bed.

The TV news reported that the Summit County Fire Department were lined up on the top of that ridge ready to attack should the flames begin to crest.  We could see their flashing lights.

On Wednesday afternoon the flames sprang up again.  This time three DC10’s were constantly circling and dumping retardant, along with small planes and BlackHawke military helicopters.  The fire was much wider and we again saw flames to the North, very near a cluster of homes.  Scared us again but turned out to be a backfire set as a buffer to save those homes.

Three levels of firefighters respond to this kind of fire: local departments, including volunteers, state firefighters, and federal firefighters.   The DC10’s are federal and were stationed in Idaho.  The governor came.  Robin’s friend, who is a Summit County Commission said he had contacted the feds and requested the tanker as soon as he heard of the fire and its rapid spread.  His actions are credited as the reason the flames didn’t crest the ridge and the saving the Promontory homes.

Worrisome time.  According to news reports this morning the evacuation order will be lifted this evening.