Uintah • Hundreds of residents returned home Wednesday, after the Uintah Fire reduced three houses to rubble. Officials kept evacuations in place for one neighborhood, taking precautions in case the flames returned.
The wind-driven fire, which began early Tuesday morning in foliage at the mouth of Weber Canyon, forced evacuations of nearly 1,000 residents as it burned five homes and a garage. No injuries were reported, and by Wednesday evening, residents of all but 186 houses had been allowed to return home.
Fire information officer Kim Osborn said Wednesday that despite overnight gusts, the fire had not grown and was 5 percent contained as the day began. Fifteen crews — roughly 300 firefighters — were joined by two water-bearing Black Hawk helicopters from the Utah National Guard and an air tanker laden with fire retardant chemicals Wednesday.
The Interagency Fire Center announced Wednesday that the blaze was human-caused, and asked that anyone in the area of the South Weber Park & Ride lot at about 7 to 7:30 a.m., when the blaze ignited, to contact authorities. The IAFC specifically asked for any photos or video taken during that time.
Early on, investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Layton Fire Department had looked closely at the area around a hillside power station, where workers reported seeing sparks on Tuesday.
An informational evacuee meeting is scheduled at 5 p.m. at Weber State University’s Dee Events Center in Ogden, the county tweeted.
Below is an updated map of the current evacuations for the #UintahFire. All areas in yellow green are remaining evacuated. pic.twitter.com/Ck2SmlJ5oE
— Weber County (@WeberCounty) September 6, 2017
One evacuee, Ben Bauter, who lost his home in the fire, told a Tribune reporter Wednesday that he was headed to the DMV to get a new license. His wallet was left in the home destroyed by the fire Tuesday.
“You still can‘t even get into the neighborhood,” Bauter said early Wednesday afternoon.
As crews shored up, extended containment lines and sought out remaining hot spots, the Weber County Sheriff’s Office reopened sections of Highway 89 and Interstate 84 that had been closed at the height of the fire.
Officials went door to door in the affected areas Tuesday morning, asking people to leave. Residents north of South Weber Drive were evacuated for several hours as the fire grew along Interstate 84, but they were allowed to return by the afternoon. The main evacuation involved homeowners in the Uintah Highlands subdivision just northeast of Uintah, and residents along Bybee Road and east of Highway 89.
About 300 evacuees were directed to the Dee Events Center on Tuesday, where volunteers checked people in and offered them food and water as residents waited to hear whether they could return to their homes. The center did not house people overnight, but opened again Wednesday morning.
Anyone needing to return to the evacuated area for vital materials, such as medications and pets, was asked to go to the events center for a police escort.
About 58 residents from South Ogden’s Mountain Ridge Assisted Living center — the ones who weren’t staying with family members — were housed in Salt Lake City at a sister facility on Tuesday night, said The Ridge Senior Living Executive Director Sheryl Johnston.
Directors decided to transfer the residents Tuesday morning, Johnston said, and by early afternoon, the Red Cross had delivered supplies and cots for the extra people. The Mountain Ridge facility was a few streets away from the mandatory evacuation zone, said Executive Director Darren Jacobson. Elderly people, he said, are especially at risk in these types of emergencies. The air quality was of particular concern to Jacobson, who noted that many residents use machines to breathe.
Additionally, about 30 volunteers, including registered nurses and certified nursing assistants, came from seven organizations in the area.
“It was pretty amazing how many people just showed up,” Johnston said, ”and then were able to get everybody one-on-one attention when they were dropped off.”
The residents were being shuttled back to the South Ogden facility after breakfast Wednesday morning, she said.
On Tuesday morning, gusty downslope winds pushed the blaze, preventing tankers and helicopters from safely fighting the fire for several hours. Flames quickly spread through the town of Uintah and pockets of South Weber, as well as the unincorporated subdivision of Uintah Highlands.
Conditions Wednesday included low humidity, moderate winds of 25 to 30 mph, which were to lessen by midday, and temperatures that could reach about 93 degrees. Several blackened slopes in the area were smoking Wednesday afternoon, and firefighters were monitoring hot spots.
Climate patterns as of late have not been “the norm of cooler temperatures that help us fight the fire,” Osborn said.
Flames had consumed unincorporated county land, private property, plus some land owned by the state and the Forest Service. At least three homes were among the six structures destroyed, officials said. No injuries were reported.
A driveway adorned with a landscaped lawn, trees and flowers led to a pile of smoking rubble that had been a home two days before. Another house, which had overlooked the neighborhood atop a hill, was only recognizable by a brick wall left in its yard.
Other homes were untouched by the wildfire, but charred marks in the grass demonstrated that the flames had come close — within a few feet of buildings in some cases.
Weber Fire District Fire Marshal Brandon Thueson said he had never seen a blaze quite like this one in his more than 20 years as a firefighter in the area. He called it, “kind of our worst-case scenario ... something we have dreaded.”
Trees and vegetation have grown close to homes in the area, Osborn said, which increases fire danger. Unpredictable winds that blew up to 40 mph drove the fire to and fro, she said, dooming some homes while sparing others.
“It could have been a lot worse,” Osborn told reporters as helicopters flew overhead and bulldozers worked on making roads safer for vehicles from power and telephone companies.
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, according to a news release, but it does not provide assistance to owners of homes or businesses.