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Hundreds evacuate as wildfire burns near Uintah

Posted at 10:00 PM, Sep 05, 2017
and last updated 2017-09-06 00:03:48-04

OGDEN, Utah — About 900 people have been evacuated as the Uintah Fire continues to burn. Many of those evacuees are flooding into Ogden's Dee Events Center, which has been set up as the evacuation center.

Each family coming in has their own story.

“The whole, entire mountainside is completely burned and there was a fence and it's gone,” said Janaee Stone, who evacuated from her Uintah home.

Janaee shared video of her backyard moments after massive flames tore through it, burning just ten feet away from her home.

For Janaee, these images are hard to look at.

The charred brush shows how dangerously close the blaze got to the family's back door.

Janaee knew the fire was burning Tuesday morning while she was at work. She thought her home was out of range until she got a call from her husband, Travis.

“He said 'you're not going to believe this, the wind shifted, it's right behind our house,' so he said 'what exactly do you want us to grab?'" Janaee said.

Travis, a firefighter at Hill Air Force Base, jumped into action, doing everything he could to protect his and his neighbor’s homes.

Janaee says her home is still standing but her neighbors aren't so lucky.

“You're thankful that it wasn't your house that was burned, but then again, you kind of feel horrible because somebody else had lost their home,"Janaee said.

The Stone family lives in one of the 284 homes in the evacuated area. On Tuesday night, they waited at the Dee Events Center with her daughters, finding out how to move forward.

“Without all of, you know, your friends and your family and all the support from the community, I don't know where we’d be and what we'd be doing right now,” Janaee said.

There are many stories like the Stone family's. The Red Cross says they are overwhelmed with volunteers and supplies. At this point, what they need are donations. You can donate here: redcross.com/utah

Residents are hoping those evacuations will be lifted in the next 24 hours.

The evacuee center will open again at 9:30 Wednesday morning.