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DUCHESNE COUNTY, Utah – Seeing where your home is on a fire map full of red is something no one should ever have to experience.
However, it’s what hundreds of evacuated homeowners in Duchesne County have been worried about for almost a week.
Saturday morning, though, there was finally some good news.
“Fire officials working with the county have determined that evacuation Zone 3 can be reduced from a mandatory to a pre-evacuation,” said Brian Harris to a room full of people at Duchesne High School. “That allows you to get back in there.”
Harris is a fire information officer for the Dollar Ridge Fire.
Evacuation Zone 3 is the area between Starvation Reservoir and Sams Wash Road.
That area is where Charlie and Gigi Nay live.
They didn’t waste a single minute getting there to check on their home and property.
“Everything is fine,” said Gigi, while hugging her husband and crying.
Their home is still standing.
“Oh yeah, that is excellent,” she said.
It’s certainly a different feeling than this past Monday when they were told to leave fast.
“Your mind scrambles. You don’t have a connection of what’s really going on,” said Charlie Nay. “Here’s the weird thing. I was playing 'Fallout 4' before this happened. And it’s like, okay, did we just move into a virtual reality situation? We were playing in an apocalyptic game and now we’re driving in it?”
They had just a few minutes to decide what to take with them to the evacuation center.
“Clothes, towels, and pillows,” said Gigi.
“And the Xbox,” said Charlie with a laugh while his wife lowered and shook her head.
Laughing after the fact is therapeutic.
Kristy Wilcox, who lives just down the road from the Nays, was smiling and giggling when talking about being back home.
“Because I’m happy! I can’t wait to sleep in my own bed,” said Wilcox.
She is relieved to back home, but is worried about her friends who aren’t.
She also knows a lot of people have lost their homes.
“Yeah, it was, it was not good,” she said.
Home now means something else to all of them.
It does to Charlie Nay, who admits he wasn’t the most outgoing person to his neighbors.
The Dollar Ridge Fire changed that.
“I’m literally ashamed of it now. We have, now we have some very good friends, not just neighbors,” he said.
Maybe that’s the lesson from these tragedies.
That, for as divided as we all may be, we’re stronger when we’re together.
“This whole thing opened my eyes in another direction,” said Charlie.
As for the other evacuation zones, Zone 1, which is still the middle of the fire, has no access at this time because the fire is still burning mostly out of control.
Residents were allowed back in to Zone 2 along Lower Red Creek Road, and Zone 4, along Currant Creek Road, for a couple of hours Saturday with a sheriff escort to check on their property and animals.
That access may happen again Sunday.
Homeowners can check with the Duchesne County Sheriff’s Office.
