The Dump Fire

We had a really dry summer this year.  The dry environment + people target shooting = fires! There were quite a few fires this summer because of this equation.  Unfortunately one fire got a little to close for comfort.  It was called the Dump Fire, because it started over by the dump.  We could see the smoke and the flames slowly come over the peak of the mountain leading down to our neighborhood. 

This picture was taken from our front porch, as you can see there is not much between our house and the fire besides dry weeds and sagebrush.  I packed up the car and was ready to evacuate just in case the order was given.  Our neighbors were out of town so I also got their pictures and keepsakes in my car.  I wanted to be prepared so it wasn't a scramble to find everything I wanted to take.  Luckily we were never evacuated!

The fire burned through the night, which made for a restless night sleep (I took his picture at 3:30am.)  This was all happening the day I was getting ready to go out of town for 9 days and leave my kids behind with their grandma's.  I was super stressed out trying to get everything ready to go.

I was in American Fork buying some last minute things and I kept seeing fire trucks and ambulances headed to the fire.  The valley was FULL of smoke, totally blackening out the sun.  My emotions and nerves were at their breaking point when I got a phone call from Doug.  He told me that Jaxon accidentally left the door open and the dogs got in the house and had bitten our kitten.  I had a little bit of a nervous breakdown.  I just let the tears flow.  I was overwhelmed and sleep deprived.

The fire crept closer and closer and we had to leave to the airport to catch our plane for our 10 year anniversary vacation.  We had to leave our poor kitten with Doug's mom to try and mend her back together, not sure if she would survive or not. We had to leave our kids with my mom hoping they would not have to be evacuated from the house while we were gone.

The fire was eventually put our and our sweet little Critter was taken care of and survived her attack.

Many thanks to the Fire Fighters who worked and worked in the blazing heat to put out the fire and protect every one's homes!