South Weber • At least six structures had burned by Tuesday evening as a 600-acre wildfire, driven by 40 mph winds, raced through dry brush at the mouth of Weber Canyon.
The Uintah Fire, first reported at 7:30 a.m., forced the evacuations of about 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. Initially estimated at 1,200 acres, a GPS-equipped helicopter mapped the burn area at 619 acres Tuesday night.
Gusty downslope winds coincided with the blaze, and prevented tankers and other aircraft from 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. 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.
In more than 20 years as a firefighter in the Weber County area, Weber Fire District Fire Marshal Brandon 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.”
By late morning, firefighters were finally caught the “leading edge” of the blaze, 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.
Meanwhile, fire officials began focusing on the evening, when canyon winds could once again wreak havoc by pushing the flames west again. Residents of Uintah Highlands were asked to be prepared for nighttime evacuations. Thueson said he hoped cooler evening temperatures would work in crews’ favor, however.
A Type 1 incident management team — a firefighting squad with the highest level of experience — had been ordered for Wednesday, fire officials said.
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 Interstate 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 after she realized they needed to evacuate from their Woodland Drive home in the Uintah Highlands, she worried about what they should do to keep their home safe. Should they water their roof? Dampen the lawn? They opted instead to grab what 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 use the Dee Events Center for resources. The center did not house anyone overnight, but the Red Cross planned to give some families stipends to stay in hotels, or find additional space if the need arose. The Dee Events Center was scheduled to reopen at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
“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.
“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 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. Tobin picked up her girls just before Uintah Elementary decided to evacuate its students and staff. The students were brought by bus to the event center and gathered in the arena’s seats.
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.”
The fire indirectly affected three other schools in the Uintah-Highlands area. H. Guy Child Elementary School, South Ogden Junior High School and Bonneville High School all had students living in the evacuated area who weren’t able to be bused home.
Tuesday evening, Weber and Davis school district officials reported classes would be held as usual at all schools Wednesday.
Layton Fire Marshal Doug Bitton noted Tuesday that more than 100 firefighters and law enforcement from across the Wasatch Front had responded to fight the blaze. South Weber has a part-time fire department, while Uintah has a volunteer agency.
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. Helicopters joined the effort later in the afternoon.
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.
