To close for comfort

It looked like a fire was on the other side of the mountain by our home in Herriman. It was making some awesome looking clouds so I thought that I would grab my camera and take some cool pictures of the smoke.

This was around 5ish. I watched for a little, some neighbors came out to take a look and I went inside.

This was probably 6:30 7ish. I stepped outside with the camera to take a few more pics when I started seeing flames. By this time more of my neighbors were outside getting a little worried. We live right at the base of the mountain so this was a little concerning. We decided then to pack some things just in case. I was getting pretty nervous. The flames kept getting bigger and bigger. We gathered our pictures, family history, some of my paintings, our marriage license and our birth certificates and a bag of clothes.

We then heard that Matt's brother and wife were being evacuated. They live just a couple blocks away. By this time our neighbors were running in the streets and gathering their belongings. Our phone were ringing off the hook because it was all over the news. My mom was very nervous and told us to pack up and get out that the smoke was bad for the baby. The news had said for people to wait to leave their homes until they were evacuated because there were traffic jams from people coming and going from the evacuating area. We decided to stay. Teneil came over with her dog and very few belongings while Brian was still at the house because there had been some looting.

We were up most of the night. This picture was from our porch and our bedroom window faces the flames. The blinds were open all night because I was afraid we were going to burn to death.

I remember waking up and panicking because when I had fell asleep the flames were about midway up the window and when I woke up they were at the bottom of the window. I thought for sure hundreds of homes were burning.

This is what we woke up to this morning. Matt and I went to work and Brian and Teneil stayed at our house. When I came home they still had not let anyone back into their home so they will be spending another night. There were 4 homes that were destroyed by the fire. A lot less than I was expecting. I really liked how the community came together and helped each other. We met a lot of neighbors that we wouldn't have. The fire is still not 100% contained but I think we are safe. Our poor hill that is normally bright red in the fall is now black and ugly but at least nobody was hurt and everyone is safe an sound.