- Without the efforts of firefighters battling the Willard Peak Fire in North Ogden, homes likely would have burned.
- Flames came within 10 feet of some homes in the Mason Cove neighborhood, according to Mayor Neal Berube.
- A car fire is the suspected cause of the blaze, which burned 577 acres.
NORTH OGDEN — The fact that the Willard Peak Fire destroyed no homes in North Ogden, though it skirted dangerously close to the edge of the city, isn't the result of good luck.
It's thanks to the efforts of the many firefighters who have battled the blaze around the clock, says Sierra Hellstrom, the U.S. Forest Service official who's serving as spokeswoman for the coordinated firefighting effort.
As of Friday evening, firefighters achieved 41% containment of the blaze and were extinguishing hot spots closest to homes.
Wednesday night and Thursday morning, Hellstrom says, homes could have been lost without the defensive push by the team of approximately 150 firefighters to keep North Ogden from burning.
"It was the efforts of the firefighters, 100%, that night," she said. "That was some difficult firefighting that first night."
Mayor Neal Berube said leaders from North View Fire District, the fire department that covers North Ogden, advised him that the Mason Cove area on the eastern edge of the city, where many home values hover in the $800,000 range, was particularly at risk. Fire officials "indicated that flames got within 10 feet of the backs of the homes," Berube said.
The fire initially crept northward up the mountain after it started on Wednesday afternoon, away from the city. But as nightfall approached and the winds shifted and swirled, the flames turned south toward the city, including the Mason Cove neighborhood, and the North Ogden Divide, the mountainous east-west roadway that connects North Ogden and the Ogden Valley. That prompted the series of expanding evacuation orders impacting the eastern part of the city, where firefighters put their focus that first night.
"They worked diligently throughout the night and they were exhausted by the next morning," Hellstrom said. "Without them having worked throughout the evening, because of those winds swirling around there, I think we definitely would have lost structures."
At the peak of those defensive efforts, Berube said a North View Fire District official told him that a fire truck was seemingly stationed outside every home in the focus area on the wildland-urban interface of eastern North Ogden, where backyards abut wildland. The firefighters, coming from multiple agencies, sprayed water in the backyards of the homes abutting wild land, "moistening everything so it's not as receptive to fire," Hellstrom said.
They also carried out "firing operations," intentionally burning vegetation behind the homes in the target area to deny approaching flames a fuel source.
That no structures burned down doesn't mean there won't be any damage, though. Fire officials on Friday were going to start a more detailed assessment of the blaze's impact, chiefly in the areas where the fire most closely approached structures, Hellstrom said..
The evacuation order that impacted about 150 households in eastern North Ogden was lifted Thursday night, though officials warned the returning homeowners to remain on guard and asked the public to steer clear of the area.
A car fire is the suspected cause of the Willard Peak blaze, which torched an estimated 577 acres, but officials are continuing to investigate. While sketchy on specifics, Hellstrom said "there was a car fire that did turn into a grass fire," though officials also received reports of other "spot fires" around Mountain Road. The suspect vehicle, fully engulfed in flames, ended up nearby on 1050 East on the edge of a neighborhood, near where the road turns from pavement to dirt and extends into wildland.
"So we think it was all the same vehicle, but in order to verify it, we do have an investigation, just to assure that that was all part of the same incident," Hellstrom said. "It's very rare where something like this might be charged as criminal if it was just an accident with a vehicle, a faulty brake system or something like that. They're still held liable, but maybe not criminally liable if it wasn't any fault of their own."
Berube said he understands the vehicle traversed some of the dirt roads in the area where the fire started, where urban areas morph into wildland, and "tried to come down." Hellstrom said the motorist, who is cooperating with the investigation, didn't travel anywhere "they shouldn't have been" and she also noted the dry vegetation in the area.
