ROY, Utah — A neighborhood in Roy is still trying to pick up the pieces and rebuild after a devastating fire a month ago. But there is still a question on the minds of people who live in that neighborhood, and some of the viewers reached out to us as well to look into how exactly the fire started.
"So we opened our front door and we just seen smoke billowing all up and down the whole street,” said Wallace Rogers. “And we're just like, this is not good.”
It was a day that Wallace Rogers won’t forget. Three of his neighbors’ homes just across the street went up in flames, leaving ruins behind as they try to find a way to move forward under the most difficult circumstances.
"I come out every day and I just look across the street and it makes me really sick,” Rogers said. “It’s a natural disaster, it happens, but these three families are just incredible families and they’re going through it like champs.”
He called the son of one of the families a “hero” after he got his family out of the house and helped neighbors evacuate too.
Rogers said it happened in seconds. But he said they still don’t know how the fire started.
At the fire scene on July 20, officials said a hot train threw sparks that started spot fires along about a mile.
We reached out to the Roy Fire Department for an update. Still, they said the investigation is ongoing and directed us to Utah Forestry, Fire and State Lands, which is the main agency handling it.
A public information officer for the division told me that they are part of that investigation and are still working to figure out the exact cause of the fire.
But with trains still going by and dry grass around, Rogers said he wants to see change, to help make sure this doesn’t happen again.
"I think if there is a track running through a residential area, it should have safety walls,” Rogers said.
