So I thought I would finally post about our infamous machine gun fire and tell about our experience. It was a Sunday afternoon like any other when we left church except for the smoke coming over the mountain. Now all of us that have been out here for a while didn't think anything of it as this happens somewhat frequently. We had dinner keeping a curious watchful eye on the fire. We watched a little "Star Trek: The Next Generation" still watching and waiting to see if it would do anything. The smoke increased and you could tell the fire was getting closer. We had no idea how big this fire really was or the path it was on. As we watched the fire finally peeked the mountain. Now this also is not a new occurence out here. We had a fire about 5 or 6 years ago that did the same thing. It even came slightly down the hill towards us so we were still not too worried, but like I said we had no idea how big this fire really was. As I sat there watching the fire out my kitchen window at aobut 8pm ish, the fire suddenly and ferociously took a major turn for the worse. I watched as the fire hopped, jumped, skipped, whatever over whatever was keeping it at the top of my hill. The fire came down half the hill within seconds and the first house was probably on fire right behind us in less than 2 minutes. Now don't quote me on timing it wasn't like I had a stop watch or anything, but it moved so fast I don't think I have ever been so scared that we might actually be facing losing our house. From our backyard perspective the house that was on fire actually looked like it was in the circle right behind us. Propane tanks were exploding sending off roman candle like flames 200-300 ft in the air. We started to pack up and got ready to leave as we got the reverse 911 call (which when I tried to actually listen to it it was just a strange blaring sound- don't think that is what it was supposed to do). We said a quick family prayer and left our house. We drove away and got the view of the whole mountain on fire and at that point we really weren't sure if we would have a house to come home to. We knew houses were already being lost, the question was when this is over how many will be lost. These are feelings I don't think that I ever want to experience again. We went and stayed at Randal's parents house, which the kids thought was great and of course they got to have the day off of school on Monday. My kids as we drove away asked me "why does everything always happen on Sunday"- if you remember the terrible motorcycle accident 2 years ago during our ward activity- well that was on Sunday too. We were able to return home later Monday thankfully to an intact house, very stinky but intact. Our neighborhood was truly watched over that night. It came as close a 15 feet from our friends house and right up to the porperties of many others. We are so grateful for the many firefighters, police and emergency workers who risked their live to fight this fire and especially to our Heavenly Father, he truly does perform miracles.
 |
| How it all started |
 |
| This is what we saw as we drove away! |
 |
| This is our friends house. It came within 15 ft of thier house |
 |
| Heaven and hell! |
 |
| Our street/house Monday morning, still closed. |
 |
| Same house after the fire |
 |
| This house is still standing today! |
 |
| This is where the house burned behind our house. You can see the chimney in the upper right hand corner |
 |
| This is the same house |
 |
| looking back on their house |
 |
| another ward members house. Way too close for comfort |
 |
| More homes in our ward |
