Utah Man Uses Popular Facebook Page To Livestream Fire, Help Evacuate Area
Aug 30, 2019, 9:59 PM | Updated: Feb 13, 2023, 2:44 pm
BOUNTIFUL, Utah – One Bountiful man used the power of social media and his following to make a difference and get people to safety after a fire broke out early Friday morning.
Many people were sleeping and unaware of the growing danger when the Gun Range Fire started around 1 a.m. Friday near Bountiful and Centerville.
Nate Kizerian has lived in Bountiful all his life. He also has a popular Facebook page – “Utah Satire.”
“I used it for venting,” Kizerian said, adding he likes to poke fun every now and then at his home state.
But he never expected his social media platform to be used the way it was early Friday morning.
“I figured the best thing to do is to go live and encourage my audiences to share that stream,” he said.
In minutes, a video about the fire was being shared, eventually reaching more than 100,000 people.
As the smoke settled later on Friday, messages of thanks continued to roll in.
“Thanks again for going live on that fire,” one message read. “I was able to warn my in-laws in to evacuate.”
Kizerian said he knew he had to do more even after calling 911 that morning.
“I got in my car and I’m like I’m going to take a look at this,” he said. “I drove around the neighborhood and laid on the horn, blasted and people were coming out of their houses. I asked them to wake up their neighbors and turn their sprinklers on.”
As things got worse, he worried he was running out of time and decided to try and get the message out through his normally-humorous page.
Kizerian said he will keep posting the memes and Utah humor, but he’s grateful to an online community that jumped in and helped to get the word out in his own neighborhood.
