Black Forest Fire

Sitting in my basement working on a Tuesday afternoon, I heard the news that there was a fire in Black Forest. Even after last years fire, I never imagined a fire so much closer to home and that could affect so many of our family members and friends. As I turned on the news and started to learn what was happening, I picked up the phone to call my Aunt Liz who had already fled her home and made it to my grandparents just a block away from our house.  As the news continued to roll, we began learning just how devastating this fire was going to be. I went to my grandparents house and watched in horror as we watched the fire spread out of control. My uncle had his laptop running showing the security camera feed at his house. At times we could see smoke rolling in and the sheriff's department search their property to confirm nobody was there. At about 5:30 that evening the security feed went out and we were left hoping that it was just the power that had gone out and nothing more.  We knew at that time that the fire was surrounding their home as the smoke and flames could be seen as they were leaving their home that afternoon with nothing but their pictures and a few small items.  Fearing the loss of one aunt and uncles house, we learned later in the night that another aunt and Uncles house was most likely in flames.  That night we watched as the fire spread East forcing many of our falcon friends to be on alert and causing us to bring a friends daughter to our house due to all of the smoke that was going that way.  It was a great plan until we woke up at 3:30 the next morning with a house full of smoke ourselves as the fire had shifted southeast.  The next day the fire shifted back west forcing the fire to blow through Liz and Don's area again. It was horrifying watching the fire go back and forth leaving everyone doubting that anything would be left. As the afternoon continued, the fire began to push more residents out of their home. At one point over 40,000 people were evacuated from their homes. This included many of our friends-some who were away on vacation.  Greg and I rushed to help friends get their stuff out of their homes before what we feared would be too late.  The next couple of days everyone spent the days and nights watching the news feeds, trying to pick up on streets that the news cameras were showing and trying to match up burning houses to where we knew our families houses were.  Then the lists started appearing-with houses that had made it and houses that were gone.  Each morning we sighed with relief when Liz and Don's house showed up on the unaffected side-but tried to keep some hope when Bob and Renee's house was left missing on the list-part of the homes that had not yet been verified.  But that wouldn't last for long because just a few days later, we confirmed the worst-it had been lost completely.  Devastation had hit as our family had lost everything in just a matter of seconds. They had left their home that day escaping the smoke that was approaching on their property with no time to grab anything except the things they could grab on their way out the door.  As news started pouring out, we learned of other family friends that had also lost everything.  It was likely to be this way with over 500 homes destroyed-destruction in Black Forest that nobody anticipated was coming.  As the community was being hit with such a hard loss, people pulled together ready to support each other and support the fire fighters that were doing all that they could to get this fire out.  People started gathering at the command center to greet the firefighters during their shift changes. We attended for three nights and cannot begin to put into words how incredible it was to witness not only the support of the community but the pride these firefighters had in seeing so many people there to thank them.  It was one of those moments that made me proud as a parent to be raising my children in such an amazing community.  Today, the fire is out. Many people are returning to their homes-but so many have no home to return to.  Rebuilding their lives is a process that they will work through in the long days ahead.  I've put together this slideshow of all of the pictures I took throughout this ordeal.  It starts out by showing the fire as we could see it from our house and then as we saw it from Falcon the first night. It then shows our nights spent thanking the firefighters and goes into some pictures of black forest as we drove through yesterday.  There are a couple of pictures that you see my aunt Liz and Uncle Don's house-everything untouched and green but black and burnt just across the street. There is also a picture of my Uncle Bob and Aunt Renee's house-or what is left of it.

So many have asked what they can do to help-we have set up a donation page in their names and you are welcome to visit it:
http://www.youcaring.com/help-a-neighbor/rebuilding-the-matlock-family/66273