The View of the Fire From Our Street

Last Thursday was a little crazy for us.  It started out normal.  I woke up, got the girls ready for Swimming Lessons and headed out.  After swim lessons, we headed over to my mom's house because Grandma and Grandpa Jones were driving through and we wanted to meet up with them when they stopped by.  While chatting with them, Heather mentioned to me that the news said there was a fire in Eagle Mountain and asked if it was close to me.  I told her I hadn't heard anything about it, so probably not.  I was wrong.  When we went inside about an hour later, I got on facebook and saw panic ridden posts from all of my neighbors because the fire was indeed very close to my home, and they were talking about evacuating our division because of the smoke and bad air quality.  Since I was already at my mom's house I didn't like the idea of taking my allergy crazed and asthmatic self out to a giant smoke cloud especially if I might get out there and be told I couldn't go home at all.  I called Ross and had him stop by home after work to grab some clothes and the dog, and we stayed at my mom's house to keep out of danger.  The kids loved this. 

 The fire was less than half a mile from our house.  Some  friends in our ward who live up on the mountain had some of their trees and pasture land burn, but thankfully there were no structures harmed.  these are pictures my neighbors took from our street.

 Look at all that smoke in the air!  We went back home the next morning to check on things.  The smoke and ash was so thick I could hardly breathe even in the house, and I got really dizzy.  We went back to my mom's for another night.

 My friend on the mountain took this.  They were trying to protect more of their land.  It worked, and you can still see the flame retardant mark on the hillside.

 My neighbor said she could hear the fire crackling at night.

 It burned our whole mountain.  It is all black now.  We are worried about the loss of vegetation because it might make the floods this year worse.  It has also led to lots of little critters coming down and invading our space.

However, nobody was harmed and our houses were safe, and that is not something that can be said of every neighborhood in our state that has faced such close proximity to these fires.  We are also grateful to my wonderful family for taking us in without any notice.  We are blessed.