As firefighters poured into Herriman on Sept. 19, two crews from the Park City Fire District were among those helping battle a massive wildfire in Salt Lake County.
Crews from agencies throughout the state responded to help fight the blaze, which destroyed three houses and required the evacuation of more than 1,600 homes. The fire began near a National Guard training center and was ignited during a machine-gun exercise at the facility, the Associated Press reported.
“Things hit pretty quick and they had all their resources committed to the fire down there,” said Bob Zanetti, an assistant chief at the Park City Fire District. “They needed some mutual aid so they called us and asked for two engines and two crews to backfill their stations there, one in Riverton and one in Draper.”
But the local firefighters were called to the fire line Sunday night.
“It turned out that one of our crews ended up going and spending the night there at the fire. They were on the front line,” Zanetti said. “They were in a fire station there in Riverton and the crew came back. You can only spend so much time fighting fire before you’re exhausted. They were going to relieve our crew to come back to Park City, but they said they could use them up at the fire. So they went to the fire.”
The six Park City firefighters were off duty when they received the call.
“We weren’t running short here at the district. It was firefighters off duty who came on duty and went down to help out,” Zanetti said. “It was pretty significant that they needed two crews because they have a lot of resources down in the valley. But that’s what we’re here for is to help out.”