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Richard Piatt and Amanda Butterfield ReportingPeggy Scott, Mother Lives In Neighborhood: "Frightening, frightening, yeah, because you could see there was no controlling it."
So could about a million other residents of the Salt Lake Valley. The kind of fire they usually see in remote lands miles away hit close to home for some residents of Salt Lake City's east bench. The wildfire on Salt Lake City's east bench consumed about 150 acres, but is now about 50 percent contained. The Forest Service and BLM are both attacking the fire, which created quite a spectacle last night.
There was a time today when firefighters thought they were losing control of the fire a bit. Winds were whipping it up to the east, away from homes in the neighborhood. Now they're more confident they'll have it all contained by tomorrow.
This afternoon, a 20 person crew hiked up to the fire to fight it directly. Also today, air attacks have been almost non-stop. Since about 8:30 this morning there has been water from two helicopters and fire retardant from planes.
There is also relief from the people who live around here.
Last night was a different story. The fire lit up the sky and had firefighters on the defensive. They were hosing down 15 homes to protect them, and it caused enough concern for a couple families to evacuate voluntarily.
Joseph Newton, Voluntered to Evacuate: "We left the house and took our valuables out for a while. And then about 3 o'clock we returned."
Peggy Scott, Helped Mother Evacuate: "We were able to pull everything away from the house so it wasn't a last minute decision. And we were able to get everything out that we needed to."
The fire started about 7:30 last night. It might have started after an electrical transformer malfunctioned, but that is still under investigation. The transformer has now been replaced.
The Salisbury's are sure glad, because it was their backyard where it all happened.
Dave Salisbury, Homeowner: "All the sudden we heard a loud pop, or noise, and the TV went off all the lights went off."
Transformers have oil inside of them to cool them off, but if it gets too hot, or if there's some kind of spark, that oil can catch fire, causing the fuses around it to blow.
It doesn't happen often, but keep in mind, summertime is when Rocky Mountain Power delivers the highest volume of energy in the year.
Dave Eskelsen/Rocky Mountain Power: "We typically get equipment Failure during various times of any extreme season."
Folks in this neighborhood say they've had a problem with power outages lately.
Jackie Skibine, Homowner: "We have had more power outages in the last year then in the last ten years combined."
For now, the thing dozens of families care about is that the danger for them appears to be over.
