East Side Bear Lake – North Eden House Fire

On Tuesday November 17, 2015 smoke was spotted on the east side of Bear Lake by a Garden City Volunteer firefighter, Scott Rose, from the west side of the lake.  After consulting with Mike Wahlberg, the Garden City Fire Chief, it was decided to report it as a structure fire to Rich County dispatch for assignment to Laketown Fire District with automatic mutual assistance by the Garden City Fire District.  Due to the distance from Garden City to the incident location it is estimated that it took about 30 to 35 minutes to arrive on site.

The home was totally engulfed in flames (see photo) when GCFD and Laketown units arrived on scene.

Water supply  issues required a ¼ mile long hose line to be assembled which further delayed getting an uninterrupted water supply on the fire as well as having reduced water pressure.

It was quickly determined that the fire was also threatening the adjacent home and two propane tanks so efforts were started to save the neighboring home as well as cooling down the propane tanks to prevent a possible tank rupture & explosion known in firefighting terms as a BLEVE.

GCFD & Laketown units were responding before any report from a local neighbor but even so the house was completely destroyed by the fire early Tuesday morning. It is reported the home had a new owner — a newly retired Cache Valley doctor whom had not yet moved into the home.

The origin of the fire is, as of now, still unknown.

On Sunday November 15th, 2015 about 1:15 pm the Garden City Fire District was paged to assist Randolph with several small wildland fires adjacent to the highway from Randolph for about 9 miles north.

Laketown and Woodruff fire districts had also been requested to assist.

GCFD responded with 5 units and 13 firefighters.

A total of five (5) fires were burning along the highway with 1 threatening one home about 1 mile from the junction.

All fires were extinguished and mopped up in about 3 hours.