Fire!

On Monday, Peggy and I were looking for a quilt shop when I spotted smoke coming from Corner Canyon - just miles from our house. This turned out to be the beginning of a large fire that consumed over 800 acres of our beautiful mountain and came dangerously close to many homes and the Draper Temple that is still under construction.

Firefighters worked furiously all day and managed to save every home at the base of the mountain.

Due to unfortunate high winds, the fire swept up and over the other side of the mountain, and at sundown the fire was still 0% contained.

Later that evening, as we were all coming home from the movies, I glanced up towards the smoldering mountain and saw the most surprising thing - for the first time, the Temple was lit up and glowing white from it's place on the mountain side. It was like a bright beacon, reassuring us that it was still standing. I've been waiting to see the Temple light up that dark hillside. The see it in it's full glory at the end of such an unnerving day was almost miraculous! This is all terribly cheesy, but I've got a soft spot for temples and this is the one I can see from my front window and the first temple I've actually watched "grow up". It was a beautiful sight!

The next day, I watched helicopters continue to dump water on the smoking mountain. The fire was still not contained, but no homes were being threatened.

This is the view of the fire from my front door:

Here's how the mountain looks now. You can see the red line made by the fire retardant dropped by the planes. Look how close the fire came to some of those houses! Yikes!

It really is depressing to see the mountain all black and charred. I know that fire is a part of nature, but it's sad to lose such a pretty view!

Note: The Draper Temple lights have not shone since the night of the fire.

Disclaimer: Most of these photos were taken by various citizens. I only took the ones of the temple and the aftermath!