Wow this is close to me! The smell is SO intense here, hope they get it out before it threatens homes.

From just smelling the smoke in the cottonwood heights area has made me sick.. i have now gain an even better respect for the fire fighters who are right in the action. i can't believe how much smoke and ash are falling in this area.

isn't that near the temple?

there is a ton of smoke at my house. I am about 12000 south and 2650 east

ITS HUGE!

I'm working in Murray and the entire Eastern Mts. are obscured...

Doesn't look like it's getting any smaller.

it's been driving me wild all day. my sinuses started going crazy at about 9:00, and i could smell it like crazy by 2:30, and i go to school clear out in cottonwood heights. I hope it doesnt' threaten the new temple, or my house!

I've been watching the fire pretty much since it started. The wind is making it very difficult to get it contained. It started around 14000 South and is moving north. It isn't very close at all to the temple. But it has gone over to the east side of the mountain. Its pretty intense up there.

Word is that there are now voluntary evacuations at Suncrest. SCARY!

We have smoke in Park City!

I am in Park City and I can totally smell the smoke and there is a nasty haze as well.

Worry about the homes and people including firefighters.

The temple is backed by the LDS church. Anything destroyed by the fire is replacable.

Homes (even with insurance) are a nightmare to repair or rebuild.

People can not be replaced obviously.

It is now SEVERAL HUNDRED ACERS. It is now North to Bear canyon. THE WIND IS TAKING IT UP THE MOUNTAIN, THANK GOODNESS

Maybe the fire can restore the old beautiful ridgeline that sits above the fire. Burn baby.......BURN!!!!

I work in Draper on 13600 south they are evacutationg dozens of homes at this point and it has cover over 100 acres with zero containment. Lets give these families our hopes and blessings. Good luck all!!

Dear Fire Purifies 3:40,

That's rather callous, don't you think? You want all those homes ruined and people's lives in disarray so that you can have your view? Nero had a similar attitude a few centuries ago.

dang I hope they find out who started the fire and throw his butt in jail,

It looks like its going out from my perspective. The airplanes have been dropping stuff on it and all I can say is thank you to those pilots!!

I seriously doubt the Lord would let fire hurt the Temple.

...anyone want to address the side-effects of the "stuff" that they are dropping on the fire?

...Since we are in a drought...and live in the desert....shouldn't we use a different method of extinguishing fires?

This fire just shows the growing problem of exending urban areas into places where wildfires burn (wildland urban interface - or WUI). More and more people want to build their rameumptoms higher and higher up the hillside, so the rest of us common folk down on the valley floor and west side can pay more taxes for expensive tankers and flights to keep the rameumptoms from burning.

Suncrest is NOT being evacuated. Maybe there are some hysterical residents who are panicking, but Suncrest is nowhere near the fire. And, Sick Student, there was no fire at 9:00 so I don't think that's what's causing your sinus problems.

To Get Real:

Actually, it doesn't work that way. In your mind, the Lord "let" the Tahiti temple burn? Agency extends to pretty any and everything. The Lord will let people have agency to murder, rape, and steal, but not burn down a temple? Please.

"I seriously doubt the Lord would let fire hurt the Temple. "

You mean like the one in Samoa that burned down a few years ago?

If it's made of combustible materials, it will burn.

So, maybe building that multimillion dollar mansion way up above the rest of the riff-raff doesn't seem like such a good idea anymore, eh?

I am always amazed at how dumb these comments get no matter what sadness or trials people are going through. I hope all of you aren't ever the ones being evacuated worrying about your homes (not just your house but your "home" where your family should feel safe") and worry that everything including your life of memories and any keepsakes might be destroyed. Please try and use a little thoughtfulness before you write such dumb hurtful things.

I could care less about all the homes and the temple up there. They should not have built them all up there in the first place. All that has done is made problems up there with all the hunters and what not. That is the wildlife area and should be preserved for the animals and wildlife. I hope they all burn down and then maybe they will think twice about building there. :)

bowhunter: your comment is sad and pathetic. I hope your trailer burns down - there, now we're even - feel better?

We live in San Diego and for several days last October, we were surrounded by intense fires and smoke. Everything was closed, schools, freeways, the Temple, malls, businesses, etc. It didn't matter the size of your home or where it was built - the changing winds decided. The loss was enormous but so were the hearts of community members. The memory of how kind people were to one another overshadows the hard and frightening times. Even the animals were taken care of 1st class of as malls were converted into animal rescue facilities. Needless to say, our emergency response team members will always be heroes!! Imagine what yours are experiencing nose to nose with those flames! As a result, we now have our important papers, files, photos, etc. on a flash drive that can be worn on a lanyard around the neck so we can carry other items and quickly evacuate. Tough memories but it was great to be helped and to be helpful! Hopefully your experience will be a positive one too.

This is so sad. Good luck to everybody in the area.

As soon as this article was posted, I said to myself, "within 10 comments, someone will say something about how the rich deserve what they get for building in Draper." I can't believe it; it took nearly 20 comments before someone made such a comment. Is my cynicism towards Utahns that bad? Well, clearly it's justified.

Utah will never be Zion as long as the financially impaired are so covetous. Yes, I'm rich. I have an advanced degree, a professional license, and waited to have kids until these things were accomplished. You, bowhunter, rameumpton, etc? Bottom line: I work hard for what I have. If you want it so badly, then work for it.

As far as living in Draper, where would you like me to live? Your house in the valley was once a natural wildlife habitat as well, you know. Your beloved pioneer heritage wiped it away, not me.

yeah bowhunter, you're rediculous. you wouldn't be saying that if your house was up there. and you obviously don't care about the temple which some of us see to be sacred.

Is the temple safe? Are the missionaries safe? Inquiring readers NEED to know!

I am from San Diego I seen some very horrible fires, uncontrolable wild fires. Started by some maniac who cares little about life. You Peaple dont realize how fortunate you are. "OK" how blessed you are so far. Buildings will be burned homes will be destroyed and families will be left HOMELESS. I dont mean just one or two families, many families. Hope or Pray that those firefigthers contain that fire for YOUR sake. Because it might spread to your neighborhood and you can believe it just might happen. Dont be so concerned who started the fire but how you can help control the fire. MOST of all how can you help others, even if it is with a small word of comfort, believe me it does make a difference to someone less fortunate OR blessed than you.

The houses really shouldn't be built there, just like the ones all along the eastern benches from Spanish Fork to North Ogden. Obviously the real threat isn't a wild-fire, though a a threat none-the-less, but the earthquake that is very-due to hit our fault line on which many of these homes are built. It's both stupid and sad that anyone would allow all of these homes to be built in such sensitive & beautiful areas because the homes certainly detract from the beauty.

Common!? I love the D. News but either higher MP cameras (WHICH I DOUBT) or just not posting decent pictures on the site. People like quality. You don't have to post the original RAW file but at least let us get a better picture of what is happening rather than a picture with NO ability to zoom in and see more!

There really should not have been houses built where they are. Its not a matter of the owners of the houses. Its the people who thought of building there. I dont understand why the people living there are getting so mad. Calm down. Be happy your house is still up.

Obviously your advanced degree was not in human relations. Some of us come from "rich" backrounds and bristle at the materialism of some who "worked hard" to get what they have and love telling the rest of us how clever you are. Your philosophy on life sounds very similar to that of Korihor.

Plenty of people work hard and have little and plenty of people work little and have a lot. There is not space here to dissect all the vagaries of the economic system but you have a major blind spot on this issue.

The point you seem to miss is this: It's an undeniable act of vanity to build a home up on the hillside, where fire danger is high. People who build there, if they think they have so much money to spend, should pay high impact fees - high enough to off set the high, budget-busting cost of wildfire caused damage to structures. That's a huge cost that should not have to be borne by the rif-raf you so obviously looked down upon - both in tone and in substance in your message above.

It's not fun to look up at the foot hills and see them ruined by vanity homes. I much prefer the way it used to look - natural, unmarred by big expensive homes. It's even tougher when I think that public tax dollars go to pay the way expensive costs of protecting those homes from the wildfires that naturally occur there from time to time.

We've got to say no the the rameumptoms.

Relax, nobody's knocking the fact you make alot of money or have an expensive home. The problem isn't the size of your home, it's your irresponsible decision to build it up in the wildland fire interface area. Not too bright. I'm fine with expensive big homes down on the valley floor where wildfire risk and the expense of putting it out are not at play. The problem is when wealthy people think they can balance the wildfire suppression skyrockting costs on the backs of the regular folk out on the vally floor. Baloney! You assume the risk of putting your house up on the hillside, now you pay to keep your house from burning in the wildfires that anybody can foresee will occur there. You're not entitled to build way high up, and then demand that public dollars be spend to protect your sructures from fire. No, leave my taxes alone. It's one thing for you to ruin the mountainous view with your homes - whether large or small; it's quite another to oppress us with the cost of keeping them from natural fire paths up there.