Fourmile Fire (the story)

Here is our story of the Fourmile Fire. We didn't lose anyone and we were only renting the house we lost, but we did lose about $17,000 worth of things (many had meaning) and we were close to losing Hudson

The story may not make geographical sense to folks not from Boulder. Our house at 100 CR-83 was about 1,500' from Sunshine Canyon Drive. I have included some reports and photos related to Gold Hill - that is where we stayed the first few weeks we came to Boulder (on Dixon Road). Below are two postings from Gold Hill back in June:

http://harvus.blogspot.com/2010/06/boulder-2-of-2-boulder-rocks.html
http://harvus.blogspot.com/2010/06/gold-hill.html

The story includes some of what was coming across the Boulder County Sheriff scanner (in italics) and some photos not taken by us of what was going on. During our rescue attempts on Day 1 we knew little of what was actually going on

Monday September 6
It was Labor Day and we were in good spirits. On Sunday I had driven 2 hours up to Breckenridge to do a 5.8-mile race with a buddy from Denver and I wasn't working on Tuesday. It was also Day 3 for us quitting smoking

We decided to head into Boulder about 9:30am. We left Hudson at home where it was much cooler than the Boulder summer heat. I went for a 40-minute run up Boulder Canyon Road and then we wandered around an Art Fair along Boulder Creek. We then went to lunch up on 28th street at 11:00am

10:04am - First report of fire
10:15am - Unit 4672 reports crowning. Unit 3197 reports smoke visible from the City of Boulder
10:45am - Command requesting air support. Dispatch advised not available due to high winds
10:54am - Unit 549 reports that Dixon Road & Rim Road priority for mandatory evacuations
10:59am - Unit 549 reports fire heading towards Gold Run, Dixon Road, Rim Road & Gold Trail. Residents evacuate to the north, Gold Hill voluntary evacuations
11:08am - More Deputies dispatched to Gold Run, fire rapidly approaching







The restaurant was fairly empty. The staff, however, kept going outside and looking off into the distance. I went outside and saw what they were seeing - smoke billowing out of the mountains

It is difficult - apparently for some locals too - to know where somewhere exactly is in the mountains. We left. We were nervous and driving fast. Our house with Hudson in it was 6 miles up somewhere in the mountains

Along the way we saw that everyone was outside and looking up at the growing clouds of smoke. These photos below give a good idea of what people were seeing from all over Boulder and the surrounding counties







We drove as fast as we could up Mapleton which turns into curvy Sunshine Canyon Drive - here is a photo at the base of Sunshine Canyon, a 10-mile road that ascends 2,500' by the time one reaches Gold Hill at the top. The time of this photo seems pretty close to when we began driving up



I began feeling better that all would be ok as we drove...

11:21am - Unit 581 reports that Rim Road is being overtaken by flames, unable to access some homes
11:30am - Louisville & Lafayette Fire requested
11:35am - Command asks to shut-off power from Mile Marker 2 to Mile Marker 10 in the canyon. All units stage at 967 Poorman Road in the meadow. 3 Hot Shot Crews requested
11:36am - Unit 571 reports all the houses on Gold Trail engulfed, evacuating residents to the east
11:37am - 18 horses being evacuated to Fairgrounds, the rest they'll be letting loose
11:39am - They're closing Lefthand Canyon from Olde Stage and considering an evacuation of Olde Stage area
11:43am - 3 houses gone on Melvina Hill

...but then we hit the roadblock at Sunshine Canyon and Poorman Road. We asked to be allowed past, to save Hudson. We were maybe 3 miles away. I told them that I would be going in regardless, even if I had to run. They said I'd be arrested



Then this guy - Rick Luebke (who took the above photo of Maureen as well as the first photo of Gold Hill) - came over and asked what was going on. I told him I had to get in and save Hudson. He said that he was a fire photographer and would drive me wherever needed. Maureen stayed at the roadblock while Rick and I took off

We went down Poorman Road and took our first right - quickly dead-ending on Model T Road. We got back out on Poorman Road and made it to another roadblock at Fourmile Canyon Road by the Poorman Staging Area

11:52am - Unit 1590 reports fire burning down Gold Hill above Wall Street, concerned about units becoming trapped
11:57am - Unit 662 requests mandatory evacuations within a 3 Mile Radius from Gold Hill immediately
11:59am - Unit 592 reporting the fire is moving directly toward the staging area on Poorman Road, conditions unsafe
11:59am - (re: Gold Hill staging) We have a cluster here. Unsafe conditions. The fire is heading directly towards us
12:01pm - Unit 1592: No units to travel up the canyons due to dangerous conditions. Evacuating resources to the CJ Parking Lot

I spoke to two firemen and borrowed their maps. I told them my plan - to drive up Fourmile Canyon to about the 4400 block and hike what looked to be about 3/4 a mile to our house at 100 CR-83 and rescue Hudson. What I wasn't exactly sure of was the steepness of any climbs. It turned out I would be starting at 6,500' going up to 7,300' and back down to 7,050'. Then me and Hudson would come back and Rick would be waiting. What I didn't realize was how bad it was getting - along the way we would drive by 6 homes on Fourmile Canyon that would be destroyed, by Arroyo Chico (5 destroyed), Camino Bosque (1 destroyed), Logan Mill Road (1 destroyed) and then parallel to Wild Turkey Trail (7 destroyed). Here are the maps - I would be going from the red marker to the purple marker:





Paraphrased they said "don't go in there...but good luck..."

Rick - who is actually from Golden about 45 minutes away - and I both thought we knew where we were going, but somehow we ended up going the wrong way and ended up on Boulder Canyon Drive. I still have no idea how this happened

Things were looking bad. We couldn't turn around as there were a number of sheriffs at this third roadblock. My thinking on not running roadblocks was being arrested may condemn Hudson to a terrible death

We went into what had become the Command Center near the Justice Center. I wandered around hoping for help but the story was the same: "I don't want to see you up there...but good luck..."

12:13pm - Only open road for emergency crews to Gold Hill is Sunshine Canyon
12:38pm - Losing structures on Mountain King Road in Sugarloaf district
1:15pm - Fire has jumped across Gold Hill Road to the north

Rick and I parted ways and I began walking the 8 blocks up to Mapleton, which turns into Sunshine Canyon. I called Maureen. Voicemail. I was very thirsty - and realized my wallet was in the car. I called again - voicemail. I then realized Maureen was probably still at the original roadblock, out of cell coverage and 4 miles away. And then my iPhone battery died

I began walking up Mapleton, assuming I could flag down a car. Immediately someone stopped and I began to explain the situation. Another car came by with an older woman who said she had a friend up in the mountains who was house-sitting with 11 cats and maybe a dog. I hopped in and we planned on making a run for it

1:22pm - Fire burning out on Dixon Road. Torching the hillside across Gold Run Road to fight back and protect what's left of the subdivision

Unfortunately they had already moved the roadblock all the way into town. I again explained the situation and some fellow was kind enough to say he would take me to his business in town. On the drive I found out that he not only owned a map store but he had been a volunteer fireman and lived on CR-83. This type of coincidence makes me think Plan B would have worked - the only way there would be a good Plan B is if I had a detailed map of the mountains ASAP and if a local could explain exactly how to get to Hudson

When we got to his store I called Maureen but again got her voicemail. I left the callback number and began re-hydrating as the store owner called a few neighbours back on CR-83. No answers - our neighbourhood had been evacuated

Then the owner and his son who had joined us got a detailed map of the mountains and devised a plan. We would drive north out of town towards Lyons and take Lefthand Canyon Drive, which was apparently not yet roadblocked. We would then come into a town called Glendale (apparently just a few houses), find a trail head (although it looks like a Forest Service road) and I would hike / run 3 miles in to save Hudson and 3 miles out. They said there would be some steep climbing but it was a great plan. Here are maps - I would go from the red marker to the purple marker, from 6,800' to 7,500 and back down to 7,050 - actually not as steep as Plan A but about 1,150' of total elevation gain





Maureen called - perfect timing - and asked if I had Hudson. I said no but we had a Plan B

1:52pm - Volunteers taking horse trailers to Peak to Peak to rescue Colorado Mountain Ranch animals

Thankfully she had seen - while waiting at the roadblock for me to return - our neighbours Tony and Linda. Apparently Linda was feisty and they began calling CR-83 neighbours - and got ahold of Gus. Just as Maureen came into the map store she got a call from Gus - he had Hudson

Gus rescued 4 dogs that day. He broke into our house through the kitchen window. Hudson was upstairs in the walk-in bedroom closet and Gus said it took many biscuits to get him out

We met Gus at the North Boulder Community Center. Hudson was in the back with 2 other dogs. After thanking Gus the Hero many times he was off to deliver another rescued dog. Gus is The Man

Since anyone reading this knows that our house was lost, I'll share what I estimate would have been the timeline of Plan B. Below is a map for reference - our house is the red marker (fourth from the left in the row of four)



I think we would have left the map store after 2pm. I am now confused about the drive - it would have been a 25-35 minute drive to Glendale had we been able to go up Lefthand Canyon. We would have gotten to Glendale Gulch about 2:45pm

2:40pm - 2 lost structures and more possible at Gold Hill, need air attack or at least flyover
2:50pm - Man in Mountain Meadows trying to save his dog

I probably would have made - assuming the elevation gain and a pace driven by adrenaline but tempered by knowing sprinting was not necessarily a good strategy until absolutely needed - about 3:30pm

2:58pm - Evacuations going on along Sunshine Canyon
3:00pm - (re: Sunshine) We've definitely got an hour or so before it gets really bad
3:09pm - flames coming up to top of road in 6300 block of Sunshine Canyon (6300 is the pink marker, second most left)
3:19pm - If it crosses Sunshine, that's the trigger point for Boulder Heights
3:22pm - We're going to have to evacuate this area because we can't see - the flames are all around us
3:23pm - It's crossing over at 6401 on Sunshine and they're coming down - don't send people down the road (6401 is the gold marker, the most left)

After rescuing Hudson and a few other things, we would have begun our hike out at about 3:40pm and we would have made it back to the car about 4:20pm

3:38pm - Fire running parallel to Gold Hill and Sunshine Road. Everybody West of Gold Hill should be evacuated
3:40pm - Sounds like we're losing a few structures up here. Unless we get more resources up here, it's not going to stop
3:40pm - Hearing explosions. Unless we get some eyes in the sky, we're really throwing dirt at this thing
3:40pm - I need a swat page. Any swat member not assigned go to the command post
3:46pm - Numerous residents are threatened including their fire station in 6000 block of Sunshine
3:47pm - The fire has jumped the 6000 block of Sunshine Canyon
3:54pm - Lee Hill towers (yellow marker in the very upper right) are potentially threatened (this is puzzling as I am not sure how the fire would have gotten there this fast - the fire started southwest of 100 CR-83 and Lee Hill towers are northeast)
3:57pm - Reports of explosions in Mountain Meadow area
3:58pm - From 6100 (near us) all the way to the 10000 (Gold Hill) block of Sunshine Canyon the fire has crossed to the north
4:00pm - Flames 100 feet from Sunshine Canyon Fire station (#2)
4:00pm - All roads off Sunshine Canyon have been evacuated
4:07pm - Evacuees from Gold Hill can't come down Sunshine (Canyon)

We had always assumed our house burned on the second day. Now we know, based on scanner transcripts, that it was lost on Day 1 as early as 3:45pm and probably no later than 5:15pm. The 3 different reports of the Lee Hill towers being threatened or burning is strange

5:48pm - fire is 30 feet from Lee Hill towers (maybe the 3:54pm report above was false)
6:23pm - Lee Hill towers overtaken in flames (see our photo below taken the following week)
8:00pm - firefighters knocking fire down around the gas tank of the 311 CR-83 Sunshine Fire station (#1) (orange marker, third from the left in the row of four)
8:30pm - 170 Whispering Pines has fire near it but is being worked (purple marker, just above the row of four)

Lee Hill towers from our house after the fire



So in the best case scenario Hudson and I would be starting our 3-mile sprint back to the car with the fire a few thousand feet away...and I am uncertain as to whether Lefthand Canyon Road was actually open or not. It sounds as though it was barricaded close to Boulder but possibly not manned. I know a few folks who made it back in that first day

Gus (and Tony & Linda for making that call) made all of this irrelevant. Until I figured out the timeline I actually regretted that I wasn't able to make the heroic run in and rescue Hudson as well as a few other things we lost (Bill & Henry's ashes, the cameras with all our photos from the past year), but now I know...Day 1 was an absolute disaster that got very bad very fast. Here a few photos from the afternoon on Day 1







With Hudson in our car, we immediately went to the smoke shop and bought cigarettes. We then went to Whole Foods and got dog food, water and mouthwash. We fed Hudson at a Ranger Station, got coffee and headed to the parking lot at the Wonderland trailhead to smoke. It was very surreal as the sun was blocked

4:09pm - Arkansas Mountain, multiple structures involved, in about 15 minutes it's going be bad, other structures threatened
4:13pm - The danger is extreme. Limit your exposure as far as getting caught up there. Leave yourself an out
4:27pm - (they've) abandoned Dixon Road and Rim Road for structure protection to Gold Hill and Colorado Mountain Ranch

We had no idea where to go. It was obvious that this was a major fire and it seemed unlikely we would be heading back home for at least a few nights. My idea was to drive 45 minutes northwest to Estes Park and stay at the Stanley Hotel. Maureen thought it made more sense to stay at the Holiday Inn Express about a minute from where we were. Here are some pics from my iPhone as we debated





We chose the Holiday Inn Express and checked into a pet-friendly room. We watched the news and frequently stepped out for smokes in the parking lot - which had a view of those Lee Hill towers from Boulder. At the time we checked in maybe 10 of the rooms were booked. Within a few hours all 104 rooms were booked with fellow evacuees, mostly from Boulder Heights and Pine Brook Hills. There were about 300 people, 300 dogs and 100 cats all banding and bonding together. With very little information. We even saw people we knew - actually, a chow that we recognized from when we were renting up in Gold Hill. We chatted with the owner and she said her husband was going back up to Gold Hill that night (he made it)

I don't remember this but at about 6pm the slurry bombers were finally able to fly



The first night was bizare. We went up to get some groceries and other essentials like toothbrushes, followed by a trip to Target for clothes (I had run in mine earlier that morning). We came back for the 8pm press briefing. The news wasn't promising:

"containment and control are not being discussed at this time"
"3,500 acres on fire with multiple structures lost in Sunshine Canyon & Fourmile Canyon"
"Report pets still in the fire area to the incident center at 303-413-7737"

Below are some images of that first night





We turned on the air conditioner for some background noise. I fell asleep but Maureen didn't. The smoke coming into the hotel room was so bad that she turned it off. In the morning I felt as if I had slept next to a just-extinguished campfire. Outside our car looked as if it had a light dusting of snow - but it was ash

Tuesday September 7
Day 2 is already hazy in my memory, but I remember watching the terrible news coverage, scouring the internet for any information and hanging in the parking lot talking to others. Below is the view from my smoking area and where we would wave to all the firemen at shift changes (8am and 8pm if I remember)



The slurry bombers and helicopters were grounded until the afternoon due to an inversion. Below is a picture of one of the helicopters getting water from Wonderland Lake (like Green Lake in Seattle)



The information we began to find wasn't good but didn't deter our optimism - you have to have hope. Below is one of many maps that became available on Day 2. We were inside the burn area



I will not waste time, but it needs to be said that the Denver television stations can GO F*CK THEMSELVES for their sh*tty news coverage and lack of anything useful

I wasn't aware of this yet, but anyone can listen to the police scanners (eventually I downloaded an app for my iPhone and became obsessed). Also of use to many folks was - shockingly - twitter and the like. People were getting their own info...

4:05pm - Propane tanks at 7875 and 8000 Sunshine Canyon are threatened by flames

The hotel began having free dinner and beers for the evacuees. It must be said that the Holiday Inn Express did a great job under the circumstances. They gave evacuees a great discount and made the entire hotel pet-friendly. At dinner we began meeting some very cool people. In fact, over the week we met a lot of great people. Folks who made us feel as though we will have friends to hang out with if we decide to move to the area, including but not all-inclusive and not including our great CR-83 neighbours:

Jerry - I saw Jerry the most as he also worked remote and was frequently walking Lilly. Poor guy had lost a house to a fire years back. He told me about the app for the scanners

Jim - my smoking buddy who was much happier when he brought Bella to the hotel. I needed a smoking buddy

Erick - a bluegrass musician and a great guy to have a beer with. He'll be sending one of his CDs once we get settled

Jim (or maybe Joe, I suck with names) - he was also a renter and ironically his nephew built 100 CR-83 back in the 1970s

Brian (?) - an East Coaster and NY Rangers fan. At least I would have someone to watch hockey with in a bar - even if he's a Rangers fan (I'm kidding, all the ones I know are cool)

Joe - I met him when he was bringing the helicopter crew in the room next to us 24 beers and several cigars. After he found out we had lost our house he similarily cheered me up

The fellow who drove the fuel for one of the helicopter teams (I suck with names) - we would catch up each morning. He also gave us very good tips on how to search the house if it was burned

On Tuesday the County released the first list of destroyed homes. We were not on it

The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office is providing this information to residents who have been affected by the fire. The addresses listed are of houses that the Sheriff’s Office has identified as destroyed by the Fourmile Canyon Fire. These addresses were determined from only 5-10% of the burned area, as that is the only area that could be safely surveyed today. Some parts of the burned area are more densely populated than others. In most cases, Sheriff’s deputies were able to identify addresses by the homes’ mailboxes, some of which are grouped with other mailboxes, so while we intend this to be an accurate list of addresses, we are working under difficult conditions in determining the actual address of each home

They also doubled the size of the fire to 7,000 acres (it ended up being 6,200 acres - 10 square miles)

Wednesday September 8
We decided to take Hudson to the dog park, just a 10-minute walk from the hotel. He had a great time (and saw prairie dogs for the first time)



The lack of information began getting to everyone. One smoke break Maureen and I saw what we thought were two firetrucks. They were - but they were private firemen who worked for a company called Chartis Insurance. They provided mostly fire prevention and in situations like this actual fire fighting for expensive homes (and they were allowed access as they were fully qualified). Sounds strange, but obviously a business decision (pay a $1M claim versus $10K in salary). We asked about our house - this guy, Pablo, was super nice. He said he was going up that way and would check on it. He took the address and our phone number

Not too much later he called - he said it was too bad and no one was allowed in. Not good news

Ironically we just saw him here in Breckenridge driving around (he is based out of Aspen). We gave him a warm greeting and he gave us a warm "Hey, Boulder. How are you?"

Later in the day the County released the second list of destroyed homes - and we were on it. The list was up to 140 with 24 damaged. We skipped dinner that night and had no idea what to do. I wanted to leave - no idea where. Listening to the scanner, within hours of CR-83 being added to the list (11 were lost in total) the sheriff's deputies were reporting three different people in the burn area on CR-83. Including one with a gun. Somehow this feistiness endeared our neighbours to us even more

Over the next few days we held on to the hope that they were wrong, that the mistake was because 100 CR-83 shows on many maps (such as Google and Garmin) as being on CR-83 (we were actually a 1/4 mile off the road). I became somewhat obsessed studying maps like this one (red = healthy vegetation, dark green & black = burned)



Thursday September 9
Thursday we began to replace some items. Maureen bought a new laptop and the great admins at AT&T got me a replacement latop ASAP

We also thought we were losing some of our new friends. Most of the people at the Holiday Inn Express were from Boulder Heights and Pine Brook Hills and they were being allowed to go back to their homes. By 10am a long line of traffic was outside the hotel waiting to go up Lee Hill Drive - I was extremely jealous

At maybe 1pm, however, everyone was reevacuated due to forecasts of winds up to 60mph later that evening. Sections of Boulder itself - including the hotel - were put on evacuation standby.

“We are certainly hoping for the best, but as a city, we are doing the very things we would urge residents to do – staying vigilant and planning for the worst...this remains a volatile situation...there are concerns about the fire’s path becoming less predictable”

The fear was the winds would cause the fires to make it over the ridges (such as the one near Lee Hill towers) and head to Boulder at a very fast rate. We packed the car

The fire was reported as 30% contained and the number of destroyed homes was increased to 169

Friday September 10
The worst case scenario did not happen but Friday was not a good day. Going on Day 5 the frustration began to get to me. I gunned my iPhone at a wall and yelled at my sweet finance analyst

Later that night I found the map the County was using to confirm destroyed homes - it was extremely accurte to the point that an illegal (?) shelter on our 18 acres had its own address - 98A CR-83. It was true - our house was gone

Saturday September 11
As we waited to be allowed back in (which was days away), we began trying to move on. We drove up to Lyons and Estes Park to look for things that we assumed were now gone. People were so great when they found out. The White Lion and Macdonald Books both went out of their ways to help order things. The owner of The Hiking Hut in Estes Park was very sad - she showed us a book she had made when she lost her first business to a fire. She then made sure she gave us large discounts on replacing some of the "Life is Good" things we lost. It was actually a good day

Funny - The Breckenridge Hat Company also went out of their way to take care of us a week later with more "Life is Good" merchandise when they found out we had lost about 9 shirts and sweaters in the fire. We don't tell people anymore as we began feeling guilty as we personally remain in good financial shape

Sadly our Boulder Heights and Pine Brook friends left again, this time for good. The hotel went from all 104 rooms booked to maybe 6. It was eerily quiet

Sunday September 12
Maureen went to the Justice Center to pick up our Access Pass from the Sheriff. Thankfully access would be limited to homeowners / renters only for many reasons - such as it was still dangerous and people needed time alone

Maureen also called Amazon to see about replacing her beloved Kindle. She smiled for the first time in awhile when Customer Care said it would be covered by warranty and they just needed to know where to ship it. Then they hung up on her. 5 minutes later she got an e-mail saying "Sorry, Leadership has determined you're on your own with your insurance company. Bye"

Wow. Cold. I sent an e-mail to Investor Relations and correctly guessed their CEO Jeff Bezos's e-mail and forwarded the e-mail and our story. I told them we weren't expecting anything except some help, but they sure made my wife sad at sad time. Needless to say, after they listened to a recording of the call Maureen was told it was covered by warranty (it probably wasn't) and they were shipping her a new Kindle. It was the right thing to do - if they had said it wasn't covered but they would happliy pay for overnight shipping, that would have been nice. Once the rep said it would be taken care of - kind of hard to go back on that given the situation

I also began e-mailing race organizers about any extra race shirts - I lost maybe 5 and was bummed. The Boulder Running Comany came through with an extra shirt, tossed in a hat, gave Maureen a nice discount and offered me a free pair of shoes ($150!). I declined the shoes - these local businesses are awesome! Another good one was Pharmaca, a local pharmacy in town. They were giving 50% off to evacuees. We did take this, without guilt - we could replace what was lost and they weren't losing money - but they weren't making any profit. Cool long term business decision and also a cool thing to do for their community

Monday September 13
No memory at all - other than finding out late in the morning that Sunshine would not be allowed back in today

Tuesday September 14
Tuesday we were allowed back in to Sunshine. It was a very surreal drive and shocking how destroyed everything was at our house. Pictures here:

http://harvus.blogspot.com/2010/09/fourmile-fire.html

Also surprising was how hot things still were. I still have a burn from handling hot horseshoes

We also saw our favorite Sheriff's Deputy. We first met him when he was cruising through the hotel parking lot last week. He was coming by to confirm our address

Wednesday September 15
A last day looking through the damage. Much more closure as there is nothing else to do. Pictures here:

http://harvus.blogspot.com/2010/09/fourmile-fire-more-photos.html

And now we move on...

The Aftermath
The Lucky...







...and the Unlucky









Videos
1 - 30-minute time-lapse early Day 1 compressed to 1-minute
http://vimeo.com/groups/HMC150/videos/14752922

2 - 2m 48s video shot very early near the fire. This sums up why this area is so fun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiNTs1EVQFE

3 - Amatuer video (?) Very cool, very early Day 1 in Gold Hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYSLlBqjAP4

4 - 37-seconds of Colorado Mountain Ranch burning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik-HqsmFH30

5 - 2m 1s various scenes from the Boulder Daily Camera (note at 14s not allowing people back in to save pets)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK9xaky5yy8

6 - 30-minute time-lapse Day 1 night compressed to 41-seconds (incredible)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfXIqbfehxs

7 - My buddies the helicopter team getting water at Wonderland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADhqwzaYbRM