One person evacuated remaining hopeful, in good spirits

SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — A wildfire up Parleys Canyon forced the evacuation of roughly 7,000 homes in the Pinebrook and Summit Park communities Saturday.

Pinebrook resident Jennifer Winstead was one of those forced from her home. She told KSL NewsRadio’s Joe Davis that everything will be just fine.

“I feel like my home is going to be OK,” she said. “I believe in our firefighters. And I believe the wind is going to shift and everything is going to be OK in my life.”

Very few things are important

Winstead had just enough time to get some of her essential items like documents, her grandmother’s silver and her mountain bike.

But even those things seem to matter little to Winstead.

“To be honest with you,” she said. “There’s not that much that’s all that important.”

Keeping a positive outlook

Since she evacuated her house Saturday afternoon, Winstead has had time to do some thinking.

“I’m thinking about all the people that have reached out to me to offer me places to stay,” she said. “And just the fact that if something happens to my home, I’m going to be OK.”

An evacuation center has been set up by the American Red Cross at Park City High School.

First reaction

When Winstead first heard about the evacuation, she took stock of what she had.

“I walked around in my house, looked around and thought what I needed and passed by the hamster a few times,” she said. “Realized that I probably needed to pack up the hamster. But it was a strange feeling trying to condense your life into your car and figure out what was really important.”

Read more:

• East Canyon Fire human caused, evacuations lifted
• Parleys Canyon brush fire closes I-80, forces evacuations
• Unified Fire responds to wildfire at mouth of Parley’s Canyon
• Photo Gallery: Swift-moving fire forces evacuations in Parleys Canyon

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