Salt Creek Fire Photos

Top: A heavy air tanker drops fire retardant to protect a home in Nephi Canyon outside of Fountain Green on July 22, 2007. Bottom: Flames move rapidly up a hillside near Fountain Green creating a cyclone effect known as “fire whirl”, left, on July 22, 2007.

It is 11 pm on Monday night and I just walked into my house in Salt Lake City. I have spent the last couple of days photographing the Salt Creek Fires in Nephi Canyon. As I said in my last post, this was the first time photographing wild fires. I have learned a lot about photographing a natural disaster and trying to maintain composure under a deadline. And for those who have ever photographed wild fires, you know you easily you begin to love the nature of photographing something so beautiful and destructive at the same time.

This is the second night in my bed in the last week. So I am sure you are wondering why I am not sleeping. Well, the adrenaline is still pumping hours later.

The first half of the week I spent in southern Utah, photographing four stories in Bluff. I returned to find myself on my way back south the following afternoon to cover one of the fires in Utah. I was assigned to something else in the afternoon but I received a call from my editor asking me if I would like to photograph the wild fire.

Scared and excited, I packed up my car once again and headed south.

Before getting there, I had no idea what to expect, no idea what to do and no idea how to get to the fire. I was relieving one of the staff photographers, Scott Winterton, and he was a tremendous help when I arrived.

Within an hour I was on a tour of the burning canyon. We were about to drive out of the canyon that first night when the winds shifted and the fire jumped the canyon right in front of us. It was then that I experienced my first wild fire adrenaline rush.

The next day, my objective was to photograph people that had been affected by the fire and give a face to a fire that burned 18,000 acres in a couple of days. After speaking to a handful of people, we dedicated the rest of the afternoon to photographing firefighting efforts.

In about 2 hours, I saw a large tanker drop 4 rounds of fire retardant around a large home in the middle of a golden field, a back burn and a fire whirl. It was pretty amazing and I walked away in utter awe of the brilliance of these firefighters.

I also found that sometimes, it just doesn’t work out that easily. We drove around all morning from one of the canyon to the other hoping to talk to someone who was packing up as many had been advised to pack in case of evacuation. We found none so we headed back to camp and got in line for a tour. It was time for me to be swapped out so another staffer took over my position and I was sent on the other side of the canyon to find people affected. I found a family that had packed up their car the night before and was sitting on the porch watching the fires slowly approach their town, Fountain Green.

Here are some of the images:

Jeanette Hutchinson looks through the documents and photos she had packed the night before. She and her family packed all the family photos and important documents the night before in their car just in case they had an immmediate evacuation. “Our bags are packed and ready to go,” she says.

Jeanette Hutchinson prepares to load the truck with a chest of valuables if they are asked to evacuate later that night on July 23, 2007. As residents of Fountain Green, she and her family packed all the family photos and important documents the night before after the Forest Service told the residents to pack up their belongings and prepare to evacuate if needed.

Aiden Workman, 22 months, tries to blow out the smoke that has taken residence in front of their home for the last couple of days. “He knows what fire is and tries to blow it out like he would candles,” says Aiden’s mother, Jeanette Hutchinson.

Smoke from the Salt Creek Fire in Nephi Canyon fills the sky behind a field in Fountain Green on July 23, 2007.

Rayleen Larsen points to the planes and the smoke in the distance from the Salt Creek Fire in Nephi Canyon. “Wow,” Aiden Workman, 22 moths, says as he looks to the planes above their home in Fountain Green on July 23, 2007.

Aiden Workman, 22 months, cries as another tanker flies by. “He knows what fire is and cries at the smoke and the planes flying by,” says Aiden’s mother, Jeanette Hutchinson. Residents of Fountain Green, the fires have been burning about 2 miles from their home for days.

The remains of the entrance to the Holiday Oaks subdivision in the Nephi Canyon — a lonely sign. The Salt Creek Fire burned the area the day before, on July 22, 2007.