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PROVO — A Provo neighborhood spent Friday assessing damage from Thursday night's brush fire near the Riverside Country club.
Wind up to 50 MPH pushed the fire sparked by a fallen power transformer, and it moved very quickly through the neighborhood near 2600 North and University Avenue. Firefighters were able to save all of the homes in the area, but a stretch of vinyl fencing was melted and burned, and some people lost some sentimental items in their backyard.
Wayne Pearce can't fly Old Glory on Flag Day, as his backyard flagpole melted from the heat of the flames. His yard, which he said was beautifully landscaped with trees and shrubs, is no longer. But it is the loss of a playhouse that hurts the most.
"The playhouse is something that the grandchildren loved, it was full of all of their toys and was a 100-year antique," Pearce said.
Sherry Seamons fought to preserve her home from the fire. She was outside a minute after the wind knocked over a power transformer which burst into flames, instantly setting the hillside on fire. She tried fighting the fire with a garden hose until police ordered her to evacuate.
"This is my home, I have worked so hard to get it to this point," Seamons said. "I am not going to leave, and (a police officer) said, ‘Yes you will have to leave or I will have to handcuff you and take you out there.' "
She watched the flames and smoke pour over her roof, feeling helpless knowing there was nothing she could do from keeping the fire from taking its course.
"That was one of the hardest things, to sit there, not knowing, that everything you have worked for, that you have is going to just be gone," Seamons said.
She praised the firefighters who stopped the flames, and saved her home.
"I was walking into my front door and I knew my house made it, so I was really grateful and I thank the Lord," Seamons said.
The property owners are working with Provo City Power, hoping they can get some insurance compensation to recoup their losses from this fire.
