Some evacuees return to their cabins

HOLIDAY OAKS, Sanpete County — Scott Ashworth moved his truck quickly up the steep and narrow dirt road.

He moved in and out of patches of green shrubs and trees, then through charred places with blackened sticks of scrub oak jutting out of the ground. The truck passed abandoned trailers and groups of firefighters still working in this area.

Following close behind him on Tuesday was a Sanpete County sheriff's deputy, providing an escort to owners of this burned out subdivision of summer cabins and camper-trailers.

As he pulled up around his family's cabin, Ashworth stepped out and looked around.

"It's amazing there's anything left still standing," he said.

Firefighters had used a bulldozer to cut a deep line around the cabin, tearing out trees and brush in an effort to save the property as the wildfire moved dangerously close.

"It doesn't get any closer than this," said Lyle Ashworth, Scott's brother, who also owns the cabin.

On the other side of the 'dozer line are blackened trees.

"Look at that! Wow!" Holly Ashworth, Scott's wife, said as she walked inside to find the cabin still intact. "You know, I'd (lie) at night and think of everything we had in here."

She walked through the cabin with her 2-year-old granddaughter, Cierra, looking in the rooms to make sure everything was all right. She joined her family on the balcony, grateful that everything was saved.

"It's a big relief. You just take it for granted," Ashworth said. "There's a lot of memories here."

Just up the hillside, members of the Lone Peak Hotshots were taking a break from putting out fires still burning on the steep and rocky terrain. Scott and Lyle Ashworth walked up to them to say thank you.

"You do a great job," Lyle said to the group.

"No problem," firefighter Nate Hallows said, shaking his hand.

Rain and flood fears

The Salt Creek fire has burned more than 21,377 acres of land and is now 25 percent contained. So far, two cabins and six outbuildings are believed to have been destroyed in the fire.