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Show -Spr$$$llif)& Wednesday, September 14, 1988 Vemfll ExffeSS 1 3 Emotions run high as fire rages By Nancy Bostick Express Feature Editor "I've never seen a fire travel as fast as that one did." Those words spoken by Deep Creek resident, Eldon "Jiggs" Johnson referred to the fiery blaze that consumed 15,763 acres of land in the Whiterocks and Deep Creek area of Uintah County. According to reports from Fire Information Officer George Bowen, the fire was reported at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 7. The cause of the fire is presently under investigation investiga-tion though it is believed to be human-caused. The blaze started north of Whiterocks and included State, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Forest Service and privately-owned lands. A total of 640 firefighters from throughout the United States were brought in to fight the fire before its official containment on Monday, Sept. 12. Perhaps one of the most striking parallels in priorities was witnessed when the fire began threatening homes of area residents. Though ordered or-dered to evacuate by authorities who feared for the safety of the private pri-vate citizens, many of the landowners landown-ers were determined to stay and fight the fire. Jiggs Johnson and his wife, Clifta, have spent their entire life building their ranching enterprise enter-prise in Deep Creek although they lost 800 of the 1280 deeded acres they own, the Johnsons would not consider giving up without a fight. "It was a bad one," Johnson said quietly, "I've seen fires but nothing like this one. I lost about 800 acres of my fall and winter fced...bctwecn six and seven miles of fences." Clifta Johnson's voice was filled with emotion as she recalled the tremendous effort expended on their behalf by friends and family. Clcn and Allen Harrison, Jeff Matthews, Don and Darren Johnson and Lylc Taylor were among the private individuals indi-viduals who manned shovels and fought the fire by hand. 'There were two boys from Dry Fork wlio came over," Mrs. Johnson explained, ex-plained, "I wish I knew their names. They started helping us about 10 o'clock Wednesday night and worked right through until 3:00 that morning. With all that was happening, happen-ing, wc didn't find out who they were." On the flip side of the coin, authorities au-thorities were concerned ataut the safety of the residents in the area n Wednesday between the hours of 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., the fire reached inferno-likc proportions consuming an estimated 4,000 acres in approximately five hours. In many areas the fire burned with such intensity that trees were reduced re-duced to skeletal remains surrounded surround-ed by powdery ashes and whitened cobblestone, Uintah County Sheriff Drew Christiansen ami his officer? were among the authorities who were called to assist in the evacuation of the homes. According bi Christiansen, the primary concern was for the welfare and fufety f lho-c who lived in the threatened boundiies. lie slued Uul almost all of the residents mere cooperative though some refused to leave their homes. "It would be hard to leave a place that you've had for 30 years," Christiansen stated but went on to explain that the primary concern his department had was for life, not property. He added that his officers had been dispatched to a residence on the Paradise Road to evacuate a rancher who had earlier refused to leave. The deputies were forced to turn back because of the intense flames they encountered. Their inability in-ability to reach the rancher, caused grave concern among the officers offi-cers all were relieved to find that the residents were safe. "Helpless..." was the terse answer given by Joe Jessup, owner of the JL Outfitters Ranch north of Whiterocks when asked how he felt about the fire. Jessup's log home and 20 acre base ranch is the result of many years of saving and dreaming. dream-ing. When he moved to the area in 1985, he vowed to build his outfitting outfit-ting business into a well-known guide service. Jessup pointed out that the severe drought had resulted in poor feed growth this summer. He had left his hay uncut to provide winter range for his pack animals. Unfortunately, Jessup's winter feed perished in the blaze which came within a few hundred hun-dred yards of the solidly-built' dwelling. When he was told to evacuate, Jessup was torn between concern for his safety and battling to save his life's work needless to say, his ranch won out; "We started cutting trees to build a fireline about daylight on Wednesday morning. I left a message on my answering machine I don't know where I would have been without my friends." Jessup said quietly. "People from the fire department said it was too dangerous for me to stay...tricd to make me leave but there was no way I could leave." As he talked about the days when the fire raged out of control just minutes min-utes away from his ranch, a sense of his anger and frustration became apparent. "After they turned off the power, we had to bucket water onto the roof...if it wasn't for Johnny Faucctt,"(who owns neighboring property) "I would'vc burned up." Faucctt began cutting a fireline with his caterpillar and, as Jessup remarked re-marked "He cowboyed it" Eyewitnesses reported that Faucctt literally drove his bulldozer into the fire to push the flaming cedars away from pastures and fields. Some residents were upset about . . - , . . v.- """"x - .... . - -w . "V- ir-K V IaH r 7T)i , :,! , j' t , J -, ' . , , -f w"k, k -4 f Ki ' ' v i . -si . . 4' JOE JESSUP, owner of the JL Outfitters in Whiterocks, receives assistance from good friend, Jim Goodman. They began repairing fences which were destroyed in recent fire. 4 U ,. vl : - V VERY LITTLE remains of the mobile home ravaged by flames near the mouth of Whiterocks Canyon. ders from his superiors. sumcd vast amounts of land. The Many of the ranchers were helped lhrcal1U) humans. 1" 5omc rcsuicnu were upset about by fricnJs neighlwrs; Steven , , , the seeming indifference of some of DucU Panter, Sara and tankers had been dropping rctardant .1 - i- . t .t. dn Q n m ti lth l!ti ni'nn IhriKf Irt. Uic fire crews Jessup, among oih crs, commented that crews stood idly by watching as private ciliens struggled to hand-fight the fires. But according to federal laws governing gov-erning fire fighters, crews cannot engage in fire fighting without direct di-rect orders from their crew Kiss. Due to the unprcccndcntcd number of fires across the U.S., there arc too few firefighters U) comhal the hundreds of thousands of acres Mill blaing. Firefighters lu tvgin fighting fire without direct orders from their crew buss, will be dis-th.ugcJ dis-th.ugcJ from duty immediately. Crew txtsvrs for ban J crcs and docrs were in short sun'!)'; since many firefighters have ma.lc the dangerous oik Uictf avova'uon, they follow Uc Witt requirements lo the letter Us SafeguarJ themselves and their job. This, often tu the dwigun of prvpcfiy owners, in eludes the fKtcw.iy of awaiting of V? II V . hX r, rr i n StfUClUrCS d hoLspOtS. Alfred lelqu.sl and Johnny Faucctt rccrcalional C3bins, onc mobiIc were among those edited by s))cds wJ Jessup for nvtnghi home and out- mhm- WIC CJ ircd by bu.ld.ngs And. m turn Joe aided duri flfsl 24 his neighbors when the fire was . turned from his own place. He told 1 ' of neighbors helping ncighhirs: Inicrapcncy fire center personnel "Kim Kolb and Moyd llendicks requested massive amounts of men pitched in and hcljvd with Jay anJcquipmenihcncalleJ to assist Sehuhu's housc....ihey had w use m lUc A,XC- lniliaIIy unJl'r DIA Ju" biKkris of water to wet down Uic ri.vtolion, by Thursday. Sept. 8 the rvHif." resource list had been becfed-up heavily seven docrs, 13 engines, The Wluierovks fire was the worst ven waicrteinlers, four airunkcri w due in U Uinuh Ila-.in arex Hy a)Hi wc c.ul plane headed i! 3 p.m. on ThurNjjy, Sept. 8. ile fire equipment list. The number of per- had developed four "hcids" and was mnel swelled as crews began ar burning in four srp.ir.uc diret lions jiving from as far a ay as Michigan at orue. Ibgh winils and extremely aJ MmneMiu. low humidity caused by the drought n. r-.. a oArik,:. treatedabuAimg index Outwasata , J; record The fuel, eomrr.ved of U,'khl, I"mirt ,,rU-M :n La t,,,h. rTanng a command pint in lHc .i ;; v V 1 1: rv' ' TIRED CREWS begm "back burning" in an effort to contain the fire which threatened the community ol Whiterocks. I combu'.uHe graves, rapidly ton .'it i .v V i vitT y tf (J '-jo (Jf '-US 5 K-.n at f r c;', ; f r!--? . TrukU area. T1iC highly-skilled 8S sumcd team of 27 pefvms as'umed sutiioftty of l!e WhitcnxVi incident during picvtouS night, hovcdurfS iir-plemcnic J by the tommand Warn iik lufcd lontrolled b.Kk hirnins W iirpnivc fire hnrs and cii-4.ng fad brf-aK fiy tins tme, irct wcrt ti.,n.t !,:-.g wuh rha.i.!i. r r.-n a vl women stigprred I K inw tSe .ft can f l'i rc-4 and c.it. fiy 6 p m , t' ey wrtc at te M -i.'r t!C earlier earli-er t .,rn t cf'(U suucf.f J, f fcicj atumi,!,!!,,.! iW ttic MitvVirtsrf I 1 ! - n fcmicd, the cd.na:i.n of IN I'k-tsgcncy lire Ccf-u-f ft wcci t( -4-i"C lrtok''git k pcrw-rnfl in a r ' ( of thKte artav t'.T-ViVrt, fte pr.xwcrvr.t prt !iw. t,fj,nt,s, fire ir.ffma. t; rtns. sre hE, sfTi b a-.t:r.r.tanl fire (fTkcn M Mj.le .i cf'atsC fire-2 fire-2 f-ie. Vifn fra:!he i 1 f f " ' ( .mi.; f-g psj r l - ' i-' r r -i:J ji ir ' " ' ! f ."!. . I (i ' -j r k fi r-: . j - J -. j J re Center were immediately noucc able within hours of awiming an-tliority, an-tliority, Uic distinctive ru.t colore J suins of fire rct.vd.int MonVeied trees, stmetures anJ hillsides. A fcad plane was in consUM acrwl motum Lhc cincuUr patterns Ifft personnel at Uic di-pauh center and cn live ground advised of t'.e Ut patterns, rate of jptcaJ anJ potential UifCats W s.trikiart anJ more. Tlie llS;h r'ngineef Con-papy of the National ttiwrj uf-J w.k lion ort Sept 9. Witl.in an hAir anJ a half of receiving otJ.-r y a-.ua, men & l cq.. ;ir,c;. of the Vefml Vmt of t!e t'uh N.;'rl Cf4 were r. 2 csut of I've Vy 9 am. the Vemd bn.t hJ lh mn mi 1 pintc of eqi;qent in lac wrvhC on Uc fire. 5tt. Ken l.-tofi .ilr.J tlovty wii?l l?-e Inter Agency Agency tut Cc-n'.cf in art tU.tt tl he'p in ary way p i-tk. i-tk. AccorJ.rg M SgL Kn;h KKharJ--. .-xe fem ie J-nt taXtSjVtrr-d Jlh fr t bet has bffn wilir amrd t IaV t r-- 1.-1... fe3n:pti;- fe sni a--'l rg t'-f hit 1 fire in to J tl vSo-criar.JfcO. Sept. M tit tee f tv!-.?-e i c t a! h,..!s il I cM i hfd ff .?; c-e of ft. the tsae F; i fr meni. exhausted ertws were ready for fest lcfirc kin reass gned to other facs. Tlic final cent u fight the WT.ileovls fire is t'4ima:eJ U reath Ue $l.mfl,ttfl fii!i. M.-4 ptiva'.e landowners whoe pfT'pcrty was aflccU-J by the ftie wi; not know fif vvhC tiile what Cif if ti i.il ,ns will tv. VoC iiln--cm hf-uly d Deep Creek hje mt yet t. d-i;p d-i;p t-.fir t.i',:'t from the n. ',;,i n rsge aSn-c ikr fah. a;,.,-; f;h Cl.fU J-l;r,--'.n h pn-;;y s-.r-f t'r car.Ie are ve: "i;;.;l we cp t,i gt tVrn, we t a:i't k ..:e Kt!'.r,i?s f t. .t 1 !.(' .k f re IV.4 )ft ffivfd v!U al ..f ,ri-o- thtn.jg' r...! i.!.! hj''tt ce-rg ce-rg Biiiitii Mrgc4 JhI oV fi whn d.rd when ovav:.nt hy t'--e Ua;e. !,nlr r,-.ks cf lernc r tV'jed fh will f-ire "-r d.i frj 1, f rr.r-. j1 nr..',; ! 1 Cn y i hc;i.vk. M-ktuJ fc iv-,-f-e )ct M av.1r-..:,,u-4--;;:-c?e 1,:KaJ (Tl.-g irrr"s, f-tr .q b :;: &rf ; 4 a . i : Khr ri';? t.-Vtf I f c !-cd. !-cd. V- rv J l.'i cvef a r ," - f i f S u '- t ' . i ii ti t. 't-VrA-. .1, i 'iat l!-il f tC-f tC-f . ' l -C AAl f t - s hl br-i hi-vd f.;h L?p-?r4 w tv-p Crtfk rl j-f-x- q set:! fn M I'tn tA.i.t--S f 5--pt I t. ty 6 r f'"i -'fi. 1 2, t1-? fire a tst'Vrc-4 t'T. ia"y ks-: 1 Aif '-.!- i 14 f r j-f r- l'i O.i. (1 i'-r'Zl -, i " " 1 - i ; fc-; ; i rf r 1 f-.J f ; r- f - iM t?- f--c 'S sr " 'v 'In r ;'t C" I : 'e ' - J 1 -? -i |