MILLCREEK, Utah — Residents that lived at Willow Glen Apartments in Millcreek are still in shock after Friday's devastating fire that burned down two of the buildings on the property.
“It’s a mass tragedy you know, it brings a lot of empathy,” said Xander Gerber, Willow Glen apartment resident. Gerber has lived there for about seven years with his family.
Saturday afternoon, Unified Fire Authority Cpt. Tony Barker gave the community an update. He told residents that resided in the two buildings wouldn't be permitted to go back in, it would be too unsafe.
Apartments destroyed in Millcreek fire, SLC investigating if worker started blaze mowing grass:
He went on to explain the investigation has been completed by the ATF and UFA arson investigators. "A lawn mower, hit a rock, sparked the fire and with the conditions and the high winds spread rather quickly and into the apartment complex. Upward of 40 to 50 people that have been permanently displaced due to the loss of these two apartment structures,” said Barker.
Gerber is one of those residents, he shared his story with FOX 13: “I just slowly started realizing like my house is literally burning to the ground right now and I’m going to lose all my stuff and I just… nothing left.”
He shared how the fire had happened fast that Friday afternoon. "Well, it started off as a pretty regular day and I decided to go out on my balcony and east some food. I start smelling campfire, I start looking around and I see a big plume of smoke coming up from the south end over where the dry field is." said Gerber.
He along whether several other residents told FOX 13, they are left with nothing. Gerber told us, he doesn't even have his wallet: “I lost all my possessions and stuff you know they have 24 units burned down I’ve been talking to some of the firefighters they say this is a nice once in a career type of fire.”
Officials explained that four firefighters had minor injuries and are okay. “I haven’t seen anything like this. We had a very unique situation where he had high heat and significant winds,” said Barker.
Sharis Wingster is another resident who told FOX 13 she has lost everything. She, her spouse and son had been living there for the past several years. “Wishing we could’ve saved all the animals in there still because there’s so many lost,” said Wingster.
She, too, couldn’t believe how fast the flames went through the property. "Then it just started spreading to the buildings and just everything just started catching on fire and the cars started blowing up and stuff so it was very sad,” said Wingster.
Barker explained Fridays conditions: “all it took was a spark, and it caught that field on fire and spread rapidly right into the apartment complex the thing that was frightening about it was how quickly it got up into the raptors and lit the roof on fire and that evacuation process it’s a miracle that none of those residents were injured.”
Neighbors told FOX 13 people have been supporting those who’ve been impacted. "Kind of feels like the community is being brought together but in like a devastating, tragic way you know. It’s interesting. It’s a really weird feeling,” said Gerber.
Gerber hopes that Utahns will continue to rally around his community during this time of need. "If you guys want to help, then you can definitely reach out to some fundraisers we have going on there’s all sorts of go fund before the residents as a whole and the individual tenants,” said Gerber.
