In Our Own Backyard: Reflections on the Waldo Canyon Fire

On June 23, 2012, one of the most devastating fires in Colorado's history took two lives, consumed 367 homes, and destroyed the historic Flying W Ranch. The fire also revealed the courage of citizens, firefighters and police officers; the generosity of strangers; and the strong sense of community in El Paso County and the state of Colorado. This Silver Telly award-winning documentary features interviews with 28 people directly impacted by the fire by evacuation or losing their home, and firefighters and police officers involved in managing the blaze.

[@aguy7848]

I don't think anyone who was living here in The Springs at that time will ever forget the Waldo Canyon Fire. My earliest memory of the fire was going tubing in the Deckers area and seeing a large group of fire personnel zoom by as fast as they could. The sky was yellow and ash fell in my front yard like snowflakes. I remember being in front of the Sam's Club near Woodmen and you could see the whole thing, and I was telling my mom "I HATE this fire, I HATE it." My deepest sympathies to those who lost their homes. This was our city's 9/11 event, and then we had Black Forest get hit a year later which was also pretty heartbreaking. I have nothing but respect for the brave men and women risking their lives fighting monsters like this.

[@greenshp]

I could hardly watch this. But I"m glad you made it. I was evacuated on Tuesday night, at 10:30 (Kissing Camels). The Flying W is just a mile away from my house as the bird flies, and when it burned to the ground the first day I knew we were in trouble. When I evacuated three days later, I just wanted to leave the city, so I drove 6.5 hours, a roundabout route, to my folks at Parachute, with four large dogs and a cat. I was literally traumatized for months, as so many were. One day a few days after I arrived on the Western slope, there was a brush fire on the prairie around Grand Junction - my dad and I had gotten groceries and had to drive through the smoke, which was drifting in a cloud over the freeway. As we neared it, my dad was happily chatting away and I was fighting panic. I ended up screaming and running from the car after he pulled off, on the freeway. I vomited into the ditch and told him I couldn't go through that column of smoke. I think it was when he realized what I'd really been through with 40,000 others. I never understood before this happened, that you stay with your house as long as you can, because leaving it is surrendering to a monster. And every instinct in you - even through you know intellectually that fire has no mind - wants to fight that monster and protect your home. But the experience, just as it changed the landscape around Centennial and Garden of the Gods, for years to come, changed all of us permanently in ways we will never be able to describe.

[@ginomnom]

I remember this day very clearly. I have been remebering this fire lately and decided to look up a documentary on it. I couldn't even get through the first 10 minutes. I was only 9 years old at the time. My house didn't catch fire but many people and friends I knew had to loose their homes. Even today it still affects me, I can't even smell smoke without remebering this fire. I remeber I evacuated on Saturday because my dad knew that something bad was going to happen and we needed to evacuate. We had no idea what we had coming for us.

[@troyschuller671]

Thank you for sharing your memories dont ever forget this time in you life its special even though it was...............

[@JuliaGraceGarfield]

P.

[@user-fg1tt7py6e]

I wanted to cry for those poor kittens they had to leave behind. It really upsets me how that was not talked about after their home burnt down.

[@TheBandit7613]

I miss that part. I left nothing behind that was alive. I even took our big tropical fish tank. It was in the backseat of my truck.

[@TheBandit7613]

I'm a former Colorado resident. I lived up in the foothills. I know what these people went through as we were evacuated. Buffalo Creek fire. I drove the truck full of pets and even a big fish tank sloshing around in the backseat. Our house was able to be saved because of the metal roof and landscaping. When you have 30 minutes to grab what you want and go that's very difficult. I grabbed the living creatures and my wife grabbed important papers and pictures. I remember the games that were played when we were trying to find out if our house burned or not. We just wanted a simple answer but nothing was simple. I eventually moved for work. I'm so thankful to not live in an area where wildfire is a problem. In Colorado every year was stressful in late summer when things began to dry out.

[@briankistner4331]

I don't live in Colorado Springs, I live Ft. Collins. Waldo was the same year/summer as High Park. I was not near the High Park Fire, but the day the SHTF in Waldo, fire fighters on High Park were worried about the fire either leaping over Horsetooth reservoir and down into the city, or working its way around the rez, going up over the ridge, and down into the city. Had either happened then I would have been in potential trouble. I had fallen asleep listening to TV reports on our fire. When I woke up, news coverage had switched to Waldo and I'm not quite awake yet looking at Mountain Shadows going up thinking our fire HAD got past the reservoir and I was shitting bricks until I was aware of what I was watching. Scary.

[@paulk.hoffman2286]

Thank you. So well done. Touching. 🙏🏼

[@miguelcarter1949]

I’ve survived fires and being on fire personally Brought tears to me that gentleman saying his father rose to the occasion as a fighter pilot ww11 👍🏻🇺🇸

[@davyyoungin1772]

The houses dont matter... What matters is them and most of their familys got out and are still alive... Thats the blessing I know somethings you csnt get back and things will change but look at all this life that made it.

[@conspiraciesarejustgreatst2059]

I'm sorry for everyone's loss. But as a viewer of this documentary, I'd say you have too many sound bites of people talking about the same things. For example, when describing what they grabbed when evacuating. But overall it's a well done doc and shows the true impact of a massive forest fire

[@amydavis4945]

I think it was important for each of them to tell their own story... whether it was the same as someone else's or not. Especially in cases where things they grabbed might have seemed unimportant or "silly things" to grab until they hear someone else did the same thing.

[@Philljag]

Omg imagine people doing the same things during a wildfire escape 😮😮

[@CharlieMorningstar]

I get that maybe their age prevented them from catching their cats but I would NOT have given up. Even if I had to throw them in a pillow case or something, my cats would be coming with me.

[@rebeccapaquette9203]

As soon as I heard about that couple - the Buckleys - that left their kittens behind to die, that was all I could think about thru this whole documentary.

[@TheBandit7613]

I not only took my cat, I took my fish. I drove with a fish aquarium in the back seat. I have a responsibility to living things under my care. I even managed to load up my plants.

[@marybarger6096]

So sad, all these people either displaced or replaced....

[@Kadets6]

I remember my thoughts when I got to my house and looked up at the sky and said "Oh my god. This looks just like Armageddon... We are in a living hell..." I won't ever forget that.

[@murrayromero1684]

well I lost my great grandmothers house and your telling me I'm still hurting to this day :(

[@gfinlay2061]

I'm sorry you are still hurting over Waldo. Trauma gets better but never leaves. Blessings to you.

[@justindobbins4459]

I remember doing my best to tell and bang doors... It still gives me nightmares...

[@justindobbins4459]

@@murrayromero1684 hang in there... I still have fear of what I saw that day

[@nanallen1]

God Bless those who lost all and the fire fighters who fought so hard to save homes and lives. The neighborhood was ‘vaporized.’ Houses burning all at once. Houses are completely leveled - even foundations. Houses in perfect condition right next totally destroyed ones. Just like California. Yes, by technology that most people don’t even know exists. Your tragedy was just at the beginning of this nightmare for so many. May God help us all.

[@americafirst7676]

to be honest , myself fighting wild land fire ie. forest fires I find it harder to let the forest burn instead of a home because that home can easily be replaced , things can be replaced if everyone is out vs you see whole forests wiped out , seedlings incinerated , even soil ,the deep biomass burnt until its sand left over and will never be able to grow forest again . Because joe blow wants his house beautiful house placed in between 500 yr old trees , they want to be in the wilderness but won’t accept that there house might be in the fire line and then blame the fighter fighters who are risking there lives at time trying to defend there home that doesn’t have proper fire easements to help the firefighters to have a chance of even battle the fire and have a chance to keep flames and radiant heat from lighting the house up . The only thing that in my mind makes me pick the house over the forest is the prize belongings of the home owner and pictures or things passed down the family that means the world to said person !! If it wasn’t for that then I’d rather see the bone burn to the ground than that 4-500 yrs old tree !! It’s just my opinion which don’t mean anything to anyone else but, I volunteer and fight these fires and see first hand a lot of homes could of been saved if they made the right defendable perimeter around there home like we tell them to do . Sry I can go on and on thx for reading anyways !!

[@colonelbeatson6027]

its sad but to us australians that's nothing compared to what we get and have dealt with down here like black saturday ash wednesday and the bush fires in 2019 and this year in 2020. luckily only 2 people died in your fires and rip to those american pilots who crashed in australia this year.

[@orioledtd]

Much more then the fire, it’s the dramatic music that made people flee the fire.

[@Boz_-st4jt]

As tragic as the fire was and the material loses they suffered. That's what happens when you live a 'Wildland environment. And, move subrurbia into a 'wildland' area. With California style subdivisions. Some of these people interviewed seemed so 'Clueless' as to to the dangerous environment. Thankfully, those firefighters both struture and wildand weren't killed or injured. I live in rural mountainous Montana. And, know the risks of living here.

[@Katieclaireh]

Do they even know how this wildfire started?

[@brennancrumb835]

They’re thinking arson

[@katieherring3473]

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@katieherring3473]

I can’t believe that arson would be a possible motive for this horrific wildfire. That’s crazy!!!!!!!!!!!

[@thesunsetreptiles]

We would of got that fire out fast in California

[@briankistner4331]

Cali in big trouble. Some of the largest fires on record for the state this fire season. Oregon not much better if not worse. I had my own brush with fire this fire season. When Cameron Peak just went bonkers on Labor Day, it came within 9 miles of the city with our Sheriff saying if the snow didn't come, (Thank God it did!) the fire would be in Ft. Collins sometime the next day.