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NORTH SALT LAKE — Glass, lumber and Sheetrock crunched in the grip of an excavator Wednesday as crews demolished the remains of a house crushed by a landslide one month ago.
Members of the Utrilla family — most of them wearing face masks and hard hats — worked with neighbors, friends and firefighters to recuperate furniture, family pictures and miscellaneous items from their former home while crews exposed its interior one wall at a time.
But even with the recovery of those items, watching and hearing their home get ripped apart was still a challenging step for the family in putting their lives back together.
"It's been difficult, but I think it's a good opportunity for them to move forward," David Utrilla said. "It's something that needed to happen."
Travis Castillon took a day off from working in Wyoming to help his neighbors transport the recovered items to their temporary residence.
"It feels good," Castillon said of helping the Utrillas. "They've gone in (the house) and looked around a little bit. A lot of it's just torn up, but there's still some odds and ends they're hoping to save."
Officials did not expect the demolition would cause the slide to move again because the house's walls were already structurally weak. But if the soil started to shift, Parkway Drive would provide a sufficient buffer for crews to haul away the soil and protect nearby homes, according to North Salt Lake Mayor Len Arave.
Once the Utrillas' house is gone, crews will fill the basement of the house to support the foundation, which appears to be holding back a small part of the slide, Arave said.
Barry Edwards, North Salt Lake city manager, said more equipment would be taken to the slide Thursday to drill larger holes and collect more information that will help crews formulate a plan to repair the hillside.
"They're currently working on a remediation plan," Edwards said.
City officials expect to begin work on the top portion of the slide no later than Oct. 15, with completion by the end of the year.
Despite heavy summer rains, monitoring equipment installed on and around the slide has not detected any outward movement, though the soil has consolidated in place, Edwards said.
The mayor said removing the house "will help some of the emotional scarring heal" for both the Utrillas and other families in the area.
"There's a big emotional toll up here," Arave said.
David Utrilla says his family looks forward to having one less reminder of what was lost so they can focus on what lies ahead.
"I think that tomorrow the outlook of things are going to be a little different," he said.
Contributing: Peter Samore and Nicole Vowell
