Fire on the fringe

There is nothing more awe-inspiring than fire. It is beautiful and frightening at the same time, but never more frightening when it is coming toward you. We saw smoke up by the water tower around 12:30 and I figured it was a little wildfire that would be put out quickly. I sent Marin and Nicolas up the street to watch the firefighters. About 15 minutes later or so, I got a call from Diane across the street who tells me there is a fire - yeah - and that the neighbors up the street 2 houses are out of town and what should we do? Hmm, maybe not just a little wildfire. I looked outside again and saw flames right behind Elena's house. I immediately called her cell and she just said, "I can't talk now, come up and bring a shovel." A shovel. That means firebreak and that is bad. I hightailed it up there and found that there were tractors and brush mowers and regular mowers all taking down the weeds and my shovel wasn't needed yet. However, Elena's kids did need to get away from the scary chaos and Elena needed lip balm and everyone needed water. I can do that! I brought her kids down to "play" with Markee, Marin and Nicolas and thanks to NuSkin I had lip balm for her! The case of water I keep in the back of the car always seems to come in handy for emergencies. Elena and several neighbors were "evacuated" and I had to go through her house, gathering up pictures, photo albums and anything that looked like it need to be kept and wouldn't be replaceable. That is an eye-opener. What would you take, and have time to gather, if you were evacuated? Think about it now, because when it happens you won't have a lot of time. Then, it was over but the waiting. Because the fire was on Camp Williams property it could not be fought on the ground - too much ammunition and explosives that have been left behind. In fact, as we watched it sounded like a war zone at times. Sometimes it was the trees exploding, but sometimes it was definitely explosives and gunfire. So the fire creeped and sometimes ran down the hill toward my neighbors houses. No firefighters and no helicoptors. Hmmm. When the fire was about 20 yards away, the Utah County firefighters came down the dirt road that runs right behind the properties setting a backburn. Standing 20 feet away it was like standing on the sun, but only for about 10 minutes. The fire raced off to join the wildfire and slowly died. The properties were safe, no more danger of losing homes. What a relief that was! This side of the fire was contained and was no longer threatening us, and the wind, for once since living in Eagle Mountain, was our friend and kept coming from the south.

Observation: 30 foot flames are awesome as they engulf trees, but only when blowing the other way. Observation, a wildfire burning sage smells really nice, but afterwards just smells like campfire. So our nice green hill is now black and scarred, but new life will appear next year. And we are all safe and everyone is back in their homes with all their belongings unscathed. I swear it was because the elders showed up and helped where they could. Men in suits don't fight fire very well, but these ones inspire and their spirit helps protect.