UTAH FIRES

This past week we have been quite active. We spent much of our time driving and hiking around the Utah Canyons. The area we are in is loaded with scenic canyons and I love to see the sights.

I love mountains and rugged canyon scenery and really don't care much to tour buildings and churches. Now Bev likes to see buildings and unique architecture so I also got stuck checking out the Mormon Temples. We did take a trip to Salt Lake City and visited the Mormon's Temple Square. We also went to Brigham City where there were a couple of Temples.

Before I get into the Canyons and Salt Lake City I really need to discuss the Utah Fires so I will devote this blog to that. I will cover the Canyons and Temple Square in future blogs.

You may have heard on the news that there are quite a few "Wild Fires" in Utah. One of them is pretty close to us so we checked it out.

The "State Fire", as it is named, is about 10 miles north of us on the Utah/Idaho state line. We got fairly close the fire on the Utah side of the line. It is just west of Portage Utah and came very close to the town. That is where the fire crews set up their camp to fight the fire on the Utah side.

This is the view of the fire we got from our campsite at the Hot Springs Resort, Utah.

Here are some photos as we approached the fire.

We took these photos from Portage, Utah.

This is how the Fire Crews live when they are not on the line fighting the fires.

The staging area was at the town hall in Portage. Portage was settled in 1867 and is mostly ranches and farms.

We wanted to see what was happening on the Idaho side so we drove over the line to Malad City, Idaho.

This is the Malad City Town Park.

This is our view of the fire from Malad City, Idaho.

The fire started by lightning Thursday evening, August 8, 2013 and has burned private property in Pocatello Valley, Box Elder County, and Bureau of Land Management land in Idaho. It is still only about 55% contained. Significant plumes developed over the fire today both from burnout operations and interior burning. The fire continues to actively burn but from our perspective it is now mostly on the Idaho side.

Daily cooperator meetings are conducted at Malad City Elementary School.

Yesterday afternoon, August 14th, we drove into the burned out area west of Portage and this is what we saw. We followed this Fire Engine up the dirt road but didn't go very far. There was still an active fire ahead of them and I'm sure they didn't want us there.

We moved over to a dirt road that is right on the Utah/Idaho border and followed that a ways into the burned out area.

Along the way we passed a couple of these portable water tanks called "Onion Storage Tanks". It is primarily used in rural areas where fire hydrants are not available. They are carried on water tenders and are deployed at the scene of a fire during a shuttle operation. It is usually set up near or in front of an attack engine, or possibly next to a supply engine. The tanks can be filled by tanker trucks and the engine uses a suction hose to draft the water into the tank. There is a fire hose coming out of this tank and we were not sure if water was being pumped into this from a nearby creek.

The resources used at this fire included 2 helicopters, 3 dozers, 7 tenders, 6 hand crews and 19 engines. Incident fire personnel totaled 213. They also dropped fire retardant on the fire which you can see in the next photos by the red stain on the ground. The red swath in the distance.

We are up close and personal to the red fire retardant on the ground and in the tree.

Bev picked up a small stone (keepsake) which was stained red on one side.

Today, from our campsite, I can still see smoke coming from the fire.

This fire did not cause any injuries or burn any structures that we are aware of.

A bad fire is now burning in the Park City, Utah area and has claimed many homes. (It was also started by lightning.) Park City, Utah is a famous ski area area and is covered with condos and large homes. I am not sure if there were any injuries with this fire. We drove through that area just before the fire started.

That's it for our excitement with the fires. As I said, I will post pictures of the canyons and Temple Square in future blogs.

Tomorrow August 16th will we will be relocating again. We will be heading South through Utah to Page, AZ and Lake Powell. We will make a one night stop in Circleville, UT on our way South.