The hills are on fire!

So we had a little bit of a panicked Friday night. (Keep in mind that Jeff and I moved into his parent's place in Payson last Wednesday.) During the afternoon we had noticed that there seemed to be a fire down at Spring Lake because there were plumes of smoke going up into the mountains by Jeff's parents house, but we didn't really think anything of it. Later on that evening I went into the garage and overheard the neighbor talking about having their bags packed and how they needed to leave ASAP. As I came outside to hear her better (because I'm a busybody like that) I saw the blaze of fire on the mountains that form Payson canyon, right in front of Jeff's parents house, moving ominously close to the orchards on the hillside. Let's just say the flames looked a little too close for comfort. Jeff's parents and I went outside to check out the situation and not too long after firemen were coming around the neighborhood to tell us to pack up our stuff, close our windows, and evacuate.

This picture doesn't really do the fire justice, but this was the view from our house.

I've been evacuated from two countries (Jordan during the Gulf War and Jakarta when riots were breaking out all over the city due to economic problems and we had to leave in the middle of the night) and neither time do I remember being really scared or panicked and that's because my parents were always so calm during the situation. Well, the same can be said for this situation. There were people that were obviously freaked out and some were acting a little like maniacs, but Jeff's parents were totally calm and reassuring during the whole ordeal and that made all the difference. I was a little worried because Jeff and I had just moved all of our stuff into his parent's garage and it could have possibly all be lost.



So anyway, we packed all of our valuables into our cars and decided to hang around to see where the fire was headed since it seemed that we were okay where we were and the firemen weren't forcing us to leave. By this time the fire had died down a little on the hillside (it was still going strong in some spots). When Jeff got home from the Owlz game he got on the roof with the hose and started watering down the house. We drove down the street at one point and watched the fire burn what seemed extremely close to a couple of houses. Luckily no structures were burnt down, but there were some houses that were extremely lucky (like the family that has the orchards). We were told that it was the orchards that saved our houses because apple trees hold about 40 gallons of water, unlike pine trees that burn very rapidly. The wind was also blowing in our favor. So that was our Friday night adventure. Helicopters are still flying over today to make sure the fires are all out. We're very lucky and relieved that it turned out the way it did!