quail fire in utah

It's raining, it's pouring...

And we couldn't be more thrilled!

Tuesday afternoon, after Ella and some neighborhood friends had settled in to watch a Disney movie after a full day of water play, I grabbed a tall glass of lemon water and snuck out on the front porch to enjoy a few minutes of quiet.

I was shocked to see this:

Which quickly turned to this:

I couldn't believe how quickly the fire grew and how fast it was moving! I kept praying it wouldn't make it over that little ridge. The flames started crawling up the mountain, away from homes, instead of towards us.

About the time the fire reached this level, Lynn called me from Salt Lake. He'd just finished a meeting and was walking to another building. He could see the smoke and called to ask if Utah County was on fire. I told him, "Pretty much!" All of Utah is on fire right now. The number of fires and damage they have done is astounding--hundreds of thousands of acres and hundreds of homes and structures burned.

The entire neighborhood was out watching and discussing what they'd heard and giving updates. There were evacuations in Alpine, which is right down the road from us. Other communities north of them were on standby. There was major concern about a 3000 gallon(?) tank of propane gas that was very close to the fire. I was down the street at my neighbor Natalie's home and Ally was there too. Ally's husband, Wes, drove up and asked, "What's everybody looking at?" What a dork! I tried not to laugh, but it was pretty funny.

Kate called from Salt Lake to make sure we were okay. Then Patrick called and had been inside at work so he had no idea what was going on. He walked outside and said, "Whoa, Mom! We were just there a few hours ago! Ashlee and I camped in the canyon last night and then hiked to Timpanogos Cave." The canyon was evacuated and is still closed.

The fire has been named Quail Fire and is still only 5% contained. We're praying for the firefighters and pilots working the fire and those who have homes in the fire's path. So far, only a barn was burned to the ground and some homes have fire damage.

A huge thank you to all those involved in keeping us safe! I'm off to make some goodies for a care package our neighbor, Helen, is delivering to the command station.

Stay safe!

Kim