Mar 16, 2012

Maple Mountain Fires 1989, 1994

I have witnessed not once but actually 4 times now fires on the face of Maple Mountain next to Mapleton. In 1989 Marie and I were driving home form Storehouse market after doing our weekly grocery shopping when we noticed smoke going into the sky off the face of Maple Mountain. It was started by two boys who were making a fire to signal down to their friends in the valley. A wind came up and quickly spread the fire into the nearby dry grass where it went so fast that all they could do was run so it didn’t get them as well. The fire spread quickly up the hill but was finally contained after only going to the top of the one draw. Fire crews supported by an airplane were able to contain it to just that one area. The following spring I took part in a scouting project where for our Order of the Arrow campout we hiked up the ridge with 1,500 small evergreen trees that we panted in the area that had been burned. I always wanted to go back and see how many of those trees lived but was not able to and then a small fire was stared by a lightning strike on the property where blasting powder caps were manufactured in the mouth of Spanish Fork canyon. Trojan Powder plant refused help from the city fire fighters because of the explosives and consequently the fire got out of hand when the canyon breezes carried it toward the mountain and further north along the fire break road. I was awaken by one of the children at around 11 pm during the summer of 1995 when the fire looked like it might even come down into town. I photographed it though as it burned along the plateau and then around 2 am the following morning it turned and was carried right to the top of the mountain in just a couple of short hours. I sat on the roof photographing while Ben and his friends were having a sleepover on the trampoline. It was a very destructive fire and not easily contained. There were helicopters flying up and dumping water on the fire for several days before the hot spots were contained. I have never really wanted to go back and see if those trees survived the first summer because I am sure they didn’t survive that fire when it not only burned up that draw but all but one of the major draws on the face of the mountain.  I still remember the friend of mine who during the first fire in 1989 was on a hike with his 8 children up the backside of the mountain. They were on the top of Spanish Fork Peak when the smoke from the fire started to spill over into the valley at the top of the mountain and he suddenly knew he had to get his children down off that mountain as fast as he could. They all ran all of the way down to the parking lot and then left the canyon just as it was being closed to any traffic trying to go up.

The other two fires that I have seen were also started by lighting. The first was put out by the resulting rain storm while the second burned up the hill much further before being put out by fire crews and helicopters carrying water buckets. I have been glad that those fires were not as bad as the others.