Herriman families fear losing their homes, livelihood in devastating blaze Sunday night

HERRIMAN — Stephen Shields couldn't sleep Sunday night.

With heavy flames lighting up the night sky outside Herriman, where more than 1,400 homes had been evacuated and several burned by the fast-moving fire, Shields wouldn't have slept well, anyway. But when he was evacuated with his wife and three children, the Herriman man didn't get a chance to turn off the TV or grab clothes, let alone take the CPAP machine that helps him breathe at night.

Shields has a severe form of sleep apnea, which makes him dependent on the CPAP machine to help him sleep each evening. Without the machine, sleep could become fatal.

Sitting in his car with his two sons nearby, Shields can see the sky brilliantly lit with flames.

Around 3:30 p.m., officials received reports that a machine gun training exercise at Camp Williams had sparked a field fire. Within a few hours, 232 homes had been evacuated in the Cove subdivision area of Herriman below Black Ridge.

Spurred by high winds, the fire pushed into the residential area and caught some homes on fire before splitting off to another mountain peak past Rose Canyon in the High Country Estates 2 subdivision.

Shields' son Sion Shields said police told them they could stay in their home because they didn't think the flames would reach them.

"They said it wasn't gonna touch our house," Sion Shields said, while leaning against the trailer, holding a couple of the family's horses Sunday night. "The flames were five feet from my truck when I pulled out."

His family was evacuated about 8 p.m. Told they had minutes to leave, the boys left without taking shirts or their pet chickens.

Stephen's other son, Jeremy, said it isn't surprising, though.

"Camp Williams starts a fire every year," Jeremy Shields said. "It's their shooting."

"Yeah, I wish I could shoot back," his dad chimed in.

Last year, several neighborhoods were warned they might be evacuated. And the year before that — in 2008 — they actually were evacuated for a mountain blaze.

Several residents are sick of it.

"They go up there and play war games," Jeanie Pettit said as she waited for her husband to drive their car down the mountain. "There will be people out of their houses because of this. Whether it gets my house or not, I don't know."