South Weber • At least six structures had burned by Tuesday afternoon as a 1,200-acre wildfire, driven by gusty winds, raced through tinder-dry brush at the mouth of Weber Canyon.
The fire, first reported at 7:30 a.m., forced the evacuations of more than 1,000 residents and closed down nearby U.S. 89 in both directions in Weber County, along with a large portion of Interstate 84, as heavy smoke cut visibility, officials said.
By 1 p.m., some traffic restrictions were lifted on westbound I-84 and southbound U.S. 89.
Downslope winds initially exceeding 40 mph coincided with the blaze, dubbed the Uintah Fire, which spread through the town of Uintah and pockets of South Weber, as well as the unincorporated subdivision of Uintah Highlands. Among the six structures that had burned were two homes, a garage and a mobile home.
There have been no injuries or fatalities as a result of the fire, Weber County officials confirmed at a Tuesday afternoon news conference.
By 11:30 a.m., firefighters were making “good progress” in stopping the flames‘ westward movement, said Weber Fire District spokesman Brandon Thueson.
“We were able to catch the leading edge,” Thueson said. “Our fingers are crossed that we‘re getting a handle on it.”
Thueson called the firefighting situation “amazingly dynamic,” noting that in some areas, crews had to withdraw for their own safety, then move back in after the danger passed.
By early afternoon, the fire had shifted to the northwest, away from homes, but remained zero percent contained.
Meanwhile, fire officials began focusing on the evening, when canyon winds could once again wreak havoc with the fire by pushing it west again. Residents of Uintah Highlands were asked to be prepared for nighttime evacuations.
Thueson said he hopes the cooler evening temperatures will work in crews’ favor. In his more than 20 years as a firefighter in the Weber County area, Thueson said he has never seen a blaze quite like this one.
“This is kind of our worst-case scenario,” he said at a news conference at the Dee Events Center on Tuesday afternoon. “This is something we have dreaded.”
A Type 1 incident management team — a firefighting squad with the highest level of experience — had been ordered for Wednesday, fire officials said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced Tuesday afternoon that it had authorized federal funds to help with the firefighting costs. FEMA funding is available to pay 75 percent of the state’s eligible firefighting costs, but do not provide assistance to individual home or business owners, according to a news release.
It was a chaotic scene Tuesday morning as officials went door to door in the affected areas, asking people to leave. Residents north of South Weber Drive were evacuated for several hours as the fire grew along Instate 84, but that restriction was lifted by the afternoon.
The main evacuation affected homeowners in the Uintah Highlands subdivision just northeast of the town of Uintah, and residents along Bybee Road and east of Highway 89.
One resident, Carolyn Jacobson, said that after she realized they needed to evacuate from their Woodland Drive home in the Uintah Highlands, she worried about what they should do to try to keep their home safe. Should they water their roof? Dampen the lawn? They opted instead to grab what they thought they couldn’t live without and left.
As a helicopter carrying water flew overhead, Jacobson and her husband hurried mementos and old photographs into their minivan. She held the topper on their wedding cake — they were just married last year — as she explained with a laugh that their plan was to head into Ogden and get lunch and maybe watch a movie in the afternoon.
“My stomach is upset,” she said. “I am nervous.”
Her nearby neighbors also expressed fear of the fast-moving blaze as they stood outside their home. They were among the few still there at about 12:30 p.m. Most of the neighborhood had already left.
In Uintah, just west of Highway 89, Jake and Maryann Wayman watched crews battle flames across the highway as they donned ski goggles to protect their eyes from the smoky air. The fire had crept dangerously close to their home earlier that morning, they said, but firefighters stopped the blaze before it reached their homes.
Evacuees were being sent to the Dee Events Center on the Weber State University campus in Ogden, where volunteers checked people in and offered them food and water as residents waited to hear if they could return to their homes.
Officials estimated about 900 residents would need to use the Dee Events Center for resources. The center will not house anyone overnight, but the Red Cross planned to give some families stipends to stay in hotels, or find places to house more families, if needed.
The event center will remain open through the evening so evacuees getting off work can check in and learn more about the fire, said Weber County Commissioner Kerry Gibson. Residents sign in with their names and addresses and will receive notice when there is more information about their homes.
“This is one [of those days] that will make us look back on the things that are really important to us,” Gibson said.
Samantha Tobin arrived at the center around 11:30 a.m. with a car packed with extra clothes, toiletries and toys for her 9- and 6-year-old daughters. Tobin received a call from the county Tuesday morning alerting her to the fire, and she decided to evacuate even though it wasn’t mandatory for her neighborhood.
Tobin lives just west of Uintah Elementary School, which was evacuated along with South Weber Elementary, as a precaution, though classes remained in session at nearby High Mark Charter School.
“We are going to wait here to see if they will let us go home or if the situation changes,” Tobin said. “My husband left early this morning for a work trip to Canada so he doesn’t even know what’s happened yet.”
Tobin picked up her girls just before Uintah Elementary decided to evacuate its students and staff. The students were brought by school bus to the event center and congregated in the arena’s seats.
Parents received a notification from the school about the evacuation and were asked to pick up their students. Upon their arrival, parents signed papers and showed identification to claim their children before being allowed to take them home.
South Ogden resident Casey New gave a sigh of relief as her four children ran to her in the lobby. The kids squealed and hugged their mother and one another before diving into the day’s events in unison.
“It was a little nerve-wracking this morning,” New said. “We live a little farther away [from the fire] but if it moves close enough, we could be evacuated.”
She added: “We just want to go home and hope that this doesn’t get much worse.”
It was unclear whether Uintah Elementary will hold school Wednesday, said Weber School District spokesman Lane Findlay. About 700 of the school’s 780 students were bussed to the Dee Events Center Tuesday after the school was evacuated.
The elementary school conducted an evacuation drill last spring in preparation for an event such as Tuesday’s fire. Garrett Pierson, a parent picking up his daughter, said knowing how an evacuation would go put him at ease when he got the notification.
The fire indirectly affected three other schools in the Uintah-Highlands area, Findlay said. H. Guy Child Elementary School, South Ogden Junior High School and Bonneville High School all had students who live in the evacuated area and weren’t able to be bused home.
Schools notified parents to pick up their children and will have to drop their students off at school if the evacuation holds into the coming days.
The Utah Red Cross also announced that it was providing 80 cots at the Ridge Senior Center at 2363 Foothill Blvd., in Salt Lake City, for overflow.
Layton Fire Marshal Doug Bitton noted Tuesday that more than 100 firefighters and law enforcement from across the Wasatch Front had responded to control the blaze. South Weber has a part-time fire department, while Uintah has a volunteer department.
Federal officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also on scene Tuesday. Bitton said the ATF will help determine the cause of the fire, noting that workers in the area noticed sparks near a power substation on the hillside earlier that morning.
It was too windy earlier in the morning to drop fire retardant on the blaze from the air, according to officials, but crews began dropping retardant and water on the hillside by about noon. Black Hawk helicopters joined the effort later in the afternoon.
Public safety officials had pleaded with area homeowners to avoid turning on their sprinkler systems to avoid tapping into water needed to fight the fire.
