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Flames can be seen shooting high in to the sky as a propane tank is set off during a fire last Wednesday above Skyline Mountain Resort near Fairview, Utah. The cabin and nearby garage were a complete loss.

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A Utah State Fire Marshal investigator surveys the damage of last Wednesday's fire that destroyed a cabin and garage west of Skyline Mountain Resort.

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MT. PLEASANT — A massive blaze engulfed a cabin and neighboring garage above Skyline Mountain Resort Wednesday, west of Mountainville Road between Mt. Pleasant and Fairview. No one was home at the time of the fire but family members of the owner had been there not long before.

According to Sanpete County Sherriff’s Detective Derick Taysom, the call came in to 911 around 9:30 a.m. Michelle Mansfield was asleep in a small cabin right next to the burning house when she and her boyfriend were awoken by strange “popping noises.”

“My boyfriend is the one who was hearing the noises and couldn’t figure out what it was,” Mansfield said. “I have a bedroom upstairs and I have a window that was facing (the lot that was on fire). My boyfriend said it sounded like gun shots. He looked out the window and the flames were higher than the trees.”

A neighbor, who Mansfield identified as Jeremy and his dad happened to have a fire hose they were able to hook up to a hydrant in front of the cabin she was in. “They were able to soak down the cabin and the trees between it and the fire before the firefighters got there,” she said. “I believe that is the only reason it was contained.” When fire crews finally reached the scene they said that they had done a good job of soaking the area down.

Mansfield’s parents own two cabins on the lot just above C-44 where the fire was raging. “They built the cabins pretty much by themselves and they live there full-time.” They were house-sitting the two cabins for her parents who were away on vacation. She said that she can be a deep sleeper and that if her boyfriend hadn’t been there it’s likely the fire would have taken the cabin she was in as well as the other one on the lot.

When they first came out of the cabin Mansfield said she could hear a high-pitched squealing that sounded like it could be a female. Her boyfriend went down to look, dodging the flames between the burning cabin and garage but couldn’t see anything. He was forced to back off because of the heat from the fire.

It turns out that the noises she heard were from pressure release valves on propane tanks. “It was very intense. There was a lot of adrenaline running.”

Taysom said that there were several propane tanks on the property. “I was told there were some BBQ propane tanks in the back of the cabin and a small propane tank inside of the cabin.” Plumes of flame could be seen shooting in to the air from below the fire every time one of the tanks went off.

While her boyfriend and neighbor were hosing down the cabin and neighboring trees, Mansfield ran up to the other cabin owned by her parents to wake her 17-year-old daughter Madisen, who was puppy-sitting for her grandparents while they were gone. By that time the fire department had arrived and blocked the road heading down the mountain so Mansfield, her daughter, and the puppies were forced to evacuate uphill.

Due to a combination of high, dry heat and an abundance of dry juniper, grass and other potential fuel, Sanpete County dispatch called out firefighters from across the county. “My understanding is most of the agencies from the central to north part of the county were there, as well as (the) Department of Natural Resources,” Taysom said.

As of press time, the cause of the blaze had not been determined. Calls to the Utah State Fire Marshal had not been returned.

The property owner has been identified as Sherril Saunders. In a public post on the Skyline Mountain Resort Facebook page Saunders said, “A huge thank you to the fire fighters and the police and sheriff departments and anyone else who were able to contain the fire to the cabin… We are very grateful the loss was only to our property and the wonderful work of everyone involved limited it to that area only. We are grateful that no one was harmed.”