BOUNTIFUL — Tim Fisher has had a lot of visitors come to his Bountiful home ever since he moved in six months ago.
He never expected a large boulder to be one of them.
"My first thought was wondering where it came from," said Fisher, while looking at the stroller-sized boulder lodged halfway into his garage.
Tuesday night, the boulder came loose from the mountain slope above his home on Eagleridge Drive and crashed into his garage. Nobody was hurt, but the big rock damaged the side of his house, as well as glass, his car inside the garage and a support beam.
"It did dislodge our main support for this side of the house," said Fisher. "My wife was in the room right above the garage when the boulder hit. She came downstairs wondering what had happened."
Fisher said his insurance company is helping him fix the damage, but he's more worried about possible future rock falls. The road above his house is used all the time by people heading into the mountains to get to popular camping and hiking spots.
Lots of dirt bike riders and people on ATVs use the road as well.
When the rock started rolling, it bounced onto that road, leaving behind a large divot before heading down the slope above Fisher's home.
Fisher is hoping a retaining wall or some other type of barrier could be built to catch future rock falls. However, no one is sure who owns the land where the rock originally was.
The Forest Service says its land begins about a quarter mile away.
Bountiful police took a report of the rock fall because Fisher's house is within city limits, but the area where the rock started rolling is not. Davis County officials say they will have to try and find the exact spot where the rock was, because it may have been on private land.
As for why the rock started rolling in the first place, all three agencies say they're not sure, and it's possible they may never know.
It could've been a natural occurrence.
"This could've triggered other things," said Fisher. "We just need to make sure it doesn't happen again, because somebody would have died."
e-mail: acabrero@desnews.com