GOSHEN, Utah — A home near Goshen is a "total loss," officials report, after a fire sparked by fireworks Friday afternoon.
Sgt. Spencer Cannon with the Utah County Sheriff's Office said the call came in just before 4 p.m. in an area that's on the outskirts of Goshen, just northwest of the city.
"It's a very rural area where they have lots of farmland and that's what this was," Cannon said.
Officials believe the blaze was caused by fireworks that shot into a pile of hay and quickly spread to the home.
"The family was, some kids were playing in the yard and they had some fireworks and the father had been moving some large hay bales around and had some placed up against the house," Cannon explained. "When some of the fireworks went off, one of them went in the wrong direction and lit into the hay bales which were next to the house."
The father tried to put the fire out but it quickly grew larger than what he could handle - so he called in for help.
"The dad tried for a short time to put a hose on it and water on it as much as you could but it was moving quicker than he was able to do anything with it," Cannon said. "At that point, the right thing to do is just to get back away just to make sure that nobody gets injured."
No injuries were reported in the incident.
With the Pioneer Day weekend, Cannon echoed the messages fire officials have been repeating for weeks: be careful.
"You cannot be too careful," he said. "Unless you're surrounded by, you know, a mile of solid concrete with no dry brush or anything like that, don't do it, find something else."
But if you are going to take the risk and light off fireworks, Cannon urged people to be aware of the conditions and area.
"I'm going to let people be the judges themselves and use their judgment to decide," Cannon said. "Today likely was not very good."
