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Alpine • Residents of 500 homes forced to evacuate by the Quail Fire were allowed to return Thursday thanks to a rainstorm and firefighters.
By mid-afternoon all evacuations — which began Tuesday when the wildfire erupted near the mountainside town of Alpine — were lifted.Resident Raymie Anderson said as she watched the rain fall Thursday morning, she was "hopeful" it meant an end to the wildfire.
Anderson thought it was "fantastic" when she learned the evacuation order for the Alpine Cove subdivision she lives in was later lifted.
"We are just excited to be back," Anderson said. "All we lost was a couple of days."
Among those returning home Thursday was 18-year-old Anita Christensen, who spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights at the Red Cross shelter at Timberline Middle School. She expected to stay another night, but was happily surprised when the evacuations were lifted Thursday.
She said the shelter was a far cry from home sweet home, but the Red Cross provided everything she needed to wait out the wildfire — showers, a cot and toiletries.
The biggest challenge for Christensen seemed to be staving off boredom. Not being able to do the things you usually do is "different," she said.
Earlier Thursday, Christensen watched a movie on a portable DVD player provided by shelter workers. Some friends — also evacuated from their homes but staying elsewhere — had brought her clothing and a copy of Elle magazine to read.
Christensen said that on Tuesday when the Quail Fire erupted, she was out running an errand. When she tried to return to the basement apartment she rents on Bald Mountain Drive, she was turned away by police.
With just the clothes on her back and having no family in the area, she headed to the shelter because, she said, she had "nowhere else to stay."
Since the fire began, about 130 people used the evacuation center in one way or another, according to the Red Cross.
Of the 500 homes initially evacuated, some residents were allowed to return Wednesday, more were allowed to return early Thursday and the remainder later in the day.
One couple decided not to evacuate out of the Alpine subdivision and watched the fire wreak havoc on the mountain Wednesday night.
Diane Christensen said that on the Fourth of July they watched the flames and could hear them roaring as they moved up the mountainside, but on Thursday morning it was quiet, calm and rain was drizzling from the sky.
"It is just a blessing," Christensen said of the rain and cooler temperatures.
It could have been, she said, so much worse.
"It is awe-inspiring to see what mother nature can do," she said.
For most of the morning the rain clouds hovered at mid-mountain, blending in with the fire's smoke.
Fire officials credited lifting the evacuation order to a combination of the cool, wet weather and the ability of fire engines to get in and douse hot spots.
The weather "sped up the process," said Great Basin Team spokesman Mark Regan.
Drier weather is expected Friday, as the battle by about 500 personnel to contain the nearly 2,000-acre blaze continues. As of Thursday it was 10 percent contained. Authorities said it had not grown significantly since Wednesday night.
Regan said that while the moisture and lower temperatures had cooled down the blaze, the clouds "did hamper us on the air attack" because the nine helicopters assigned to fight the fire were unable to fly.
By late afternoon the sun came back out and helicopters were back in the air dropping buckets of water again.
It also became too wet for ground crews to work. Soaked to the skin, a hotshot crew from Arizona quit the mountain mid-afternoon.
Because of the rain, firefighters on Thursday also decided against using a back burn to destroy 100 acres of scrub oak adjacent to houses on the southwest side of the fire.
A barn has been the only casualty of the blaze, although two houses sustained minor damage, said fire spokeswoman Loyal Clark.
The starting point of the fire was marked Thursday by yellow tape, southeast of Water Tank Road and above Lambert Park. The Utah County Sheriff's Office has said it was started Tuesday by a trackhoe working near the park.
There was no trackhoe at the taped-off site Thursday but a 100-yard-long trench about 15 feet deep that had been dug in rocky ground was visible.
Alpine Councilwoman Kimberly Bryant has said the cause remains under investigation, the trackhoe was not owned by the city and the point of origin is near where city, county and federal lands meet.
According to Google GPS and Utah County property records, the point of origin is private land owned by Box Elder Properties Limited Partnership.
Nate Carlisle contributed to this report. Fire updates
A hotline has been established for information about the Quail Fire • 801-851-8778