NEW HARMONY — An inferno of flames erupted Monday night on the outskirts of this Washington County town as hundreds of people fled a menacing wildfire, leaving their homes behind — perhaps never to return to them.
The evacuation order, issued just after 7 p.m., startled residents who just an hour earlier were told the Blue Springs Fire seemed to be veering away.
"We were sitting down to dinner and noticed the wind suddenly shifted," Doug Corry said late Monday as he watched a mass of orange flames stretch into the dark sky. "That's when we quit eating and started grabbing things."
Fifteen-year-old Alyssa Prisbrey stood fearfully in the parking lot of the New Harmony Shell station with her parents, waving at friends and neighbors as they drove by.
"I got scared when the sirens went off," she said. "I thought we were home alone because my parents were at the meeting."
Her father, Kendall Prisbrey, said he went to a community meeting about the fire Monday evening while his wife stayed home to pack. When he got there, he was told to go home immediately and evacuate.
"We got all our domestic animals out and then turned the rest of our animals out," Prisbrey said. "The horses didn't want to leave the barn."
As the town emptied late Monday, fire officials said they were unsure whether any structures had been consumed by the fire.
"I've heard it both ways," said Anne Stanworth, a Bureau of Land Management fire information officer. "We may have to wait till morning when the smoke clears to see what we've got."
Seventeen fire engines and their crews, along with a couple of bulldozers to cut firebreaks, and 20 other firefighters were on hand Monday night, stationed throughout the community. They were parked along roads and at every intersection in case the fire were to creep further into town.
As the evacuation order took effect, residents hauled out trucks packed full of mounted deer heads, saddles and tack and assorted household belongings. Dogs howled from pickup beds, and horses sniffed the smoky air with widened nostrils as they were loaded into trailers.
Throughout the day Monday, firefighters had battled erratic winds as the wildfire threatened residences, on and off, all day.
The National Interagency Fire Center said the fire had burned 10,000 acres of grass, pinyon, pine and oak brush. It was 30 percent contained. Approximately 565 people fought the fire Monday. Throughout the day six air tankers, three helicopters, and 30 fire engines were employed to try to contain the fire.
The fire stretched for about eight miles along I-15. Intermittent closures of the highway have frustrated travelers since Saturday night.
At one point earlier in the day, the Blue Springs Fire was less than three miles away from the community, at the north end of Washington County. But it inched closer as the night progressed.
Residents were given an evacuation notice Sunday, which meant it was time to pack up valuables and be ready to go when the siren sounded.
"We've been married 52 years, so there's a lot of memories," 74-year-old Joy Simpson, who lives in Harmony Heights with her husband Cecil, said as she prepared to leave. "It's hard to pick what to pack, but I got the important papers and all the photo albums and pictures. We're ready to go, if we need to."
Simpson said the local fire department headed into the hills during the day to cut down trees that posed a potential fire danger to other homes further up the hillside. Residents were told they could gather at an LDS stake house in Cedar City if they needed a place to go.
"A lot of us have cut down a lot of that grass so it can't burn," Simpson said from her home about an hour before the evacuation order sounded.
On the west side of the county, firefighters continued to douse hot spots left behind from the 68,000-acre Westside Complex Fire. Officials expected to contain that fire by early today, said David Boyd, a BLM fire information officer.
"The Westside is burning in rough country right now, so we're sending some of those crews over to another fire that's about four air miles away from Motoqua," Boyd said.
The Halfway Fire crossed over from the Nevada border into Utah and is now threatening the dozen families that live in the isolated community.
"We're sending structure engines there, just in case, to protect homes," said Boyd. "The community is on a one-hour evacuation alert notice tonight. The Beaver Dam Wash will give us a really good defense line, though."
Motoqua residents suffered in January when rising floodwaters gobbled up several homes.
Darrell Folkersen of Hurricane knows what it's like to watch flames lick at the edge of his property. A 2,000-acre wildfire was within 10 feet of his house when a heavy air tanker dropped several loads of red fire retardant on the blaze.
"We had to really run from the heat; it was like an ocean wave," said Folkersen, whose home, cars, trees and other possessions were covered with splotches of the ruddy red mixture.
He said there were moments when he thought the house was a goner.
"We thought we were going to lose it and then the air tanker showed up, flying about 50 feet above the hill," he said.said Folkersen. "They risked their lives for us. I want to find those guys and thank them."
In the meantime, Folkersen and his neighbors have a big cleanup job ahead. And the best way to do that is with good old elbow grease and lots of water, Boyd said.
"Well, it's phosphate, which is essentially a fertilizer," he said. "The sooner you get it off, the fewer problems you'll have later."
Contributing: Jennifer Dobner, Associated Press
E-mail: nperkins@desnews.com