- A brush fire in Layton destroyed one home and damaged four others Tuesday.
- About 30 families were evacuated as nearly 70 firefighters battled the blaze.
- Investigators interviewed teens possibly involved; dry grass heightened fire risk, officials said.
LAYTON — Firefighters said one home was likely a total loss and four others sustained some damage in a fast-moving brush fire Tuesday that led to the evacuation of roughly 30 families in two neighboring trailer communities.
According to Layton City Fire Battalion Chief Jason Cook, the fire just to the east of the Weber State University Davis campus sparked just before 4 p.m. and resulted in numerous 911 calls.
"It was a pretty dang hostile fire for about the first 30 minutes, and it was growing rapidly," Cook told reporters. "We had wind changes that were affecting it."
Cook said nearly 70 firefighters responded to the two-alarm blaze as concern grew that the fire could impact even more homes.
"Had multiple trailers gotten involved, they then would have generated enough heat and enough fire that we would have gotten more and more involved," Cook said.
Firefighters said the fire spread to approximately 7 acres before crews were able to get the upper hand.
In addition to one family displaced by the damage to their home, Cook said eight other families were likely going to be out of their houses until Wednesday as workers attempted to restore power to the structures.
Investigators were interviewing some teens who were in the area to see if they were possibly involved in the start of the fire, Cook said.
With plenty of dry grass in the area, Cook said the department required the WSU Davis campus to act recently.
"The grasses are tall and very dry, and our fire administration over the last several days, as we got closer to the Fourth of July, required them to both mow it and cut down some," Cook said. "We've had less severe fire growth in the area to the east because they did that."
Neighbors watched anxiously as crews battled the blaze, knowing the hazard the dry grass presented.
"That house right there, they mowed their own section," Nima Fariborzi said. "If they didn't mow their own section, that would have been burned down."
Fariborzi said he watched as the flames spread and eventually burned a shed in his line of sight, and he said he and others were concerned about the grass close to his neighborhood, which was just to the northwest of where the fire burned.
"If this trail wasn't here, then this fire would have just taken over some of our neighbors' houses," he said.
Cook said the fire showed just how hazardous conditions are right now, and how little it takes to start a serious fire.
"Even extremely innocuous acts can contribute to a pretty substantial fire that unfortunately might displace families or cause the loss of their home and their property," Cook said.
Contributing: Devin Oldroyd
