Leeds resident describes fire that damaged home

LEEDS, Utah (ABC4) — A Leeds woman woke up to flames blasting through her bedroom window after a weed burning incident got out of control.

Firefighters with Hurricane Valley Fire and Rescue say the home ignited after a man used a propane torch to burn weeds in his front yard. Within minutes, the flames climbed up the side of the house and into the attic.

Inside the home, Colleen Gardner was asleep when she woke up to flames just outside her window.

“I see these flames coming around the window, but not quite in,” Gardner says. “And so I thought, ‘what do you do?”

She had only seconds to react, grabbing a few valuables before running out as the fire grew.

“It was frantic,” she says. “It’s hard. It’s hard to remember anything of it because it happened so fast.”

And what’s been left behind is charred rooms, scorched ceilings and damage throughout the house. Fire crews are crediting neighbors and a local firefighter with making sure everyone escaped safely.

“We did have a off duty firefighter that lives there in Leeds,” said Tyler Ames with Hurricane Valley Fire and Rescue. “So he was able to go over and make sure that everybody got out of the house safely. And then once our crews arrived on scene, they were able to initiate a fire attack and they were able to get the fire knocked out fairly quickly.”

Investigators say the flames started after a torch ignited a bush next to the house, then spread into the attic.

“He was using a propane burner torch to burn weeds, and it had caught a bush that was next to the home on fire and he didn’t have any water nearby,” Ames adds. “So it just started extending up into the house. So that’s how it got up into the eaves and up into the attic.”

With burn season closed until September 15, fire officials say this is a reminder of how unpredictable open flame can be.

“Any time you’re burning anything, you always want to have an adequate water supply nearby just in case something happens,” Ames says. “You usually do it in smaller piles when you’re burning it. When you do it in larger piles, sometimes it’s unpredictable. Especially when the weather picks up.”

Despite the damage, Colleen says she’s grateful her family and pets made it out unharmed.

“Things are things, like I said, and we can replace things,” Gardner says. “It’s just people’s lives. And I’m just so glad that we got out just fine, and that the firefighters were so quick.”

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office says the homeowner was cited and charged with violating stage two fire restrictions, a Class B Misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.