Safety officials said Utah’s fire risk is already high and is just going to get worse. Wildfires are spreading in Southern Utah and are beginning to spread in the north as well. Some people living in Lehi are nervous about the possibility of a wildfire similar to one that forced them to evacuate five years ago. The Traverse Mountain Fire sparked in 2020. It burned roughly 1,000 and forced 40 families from their homes.
Some residents said the brush has grown back to nearly what it was back then, so if someone triggers another fire, they worry that the damage could be just as bad as before. Ben Caldwell can vividly remember the knock on his door from someone telling him he needed to leave because of the fire. He said he was packed up and ready to leave in a short amount of time, and when he was, the whole neighborhood was trying to get out.
โIn the 20 minutes it took us to evacuate, the whole neighborhood was packed and heading out. Once we got down, we could see the glow coming down the hill. We had to watch from home security cameras to see it burned down to the retaining wall,โ Caldwell said. He watched his security cameras as the flames got all the way down to his retaining wall. He turned on his sprinklers, which also helped keep the fire at bay.
