Longtime local journalist Bill Radford and his wife, Margaret, live on 5 acres in the Falcon area with chickens, rabbits, dogs, cats, a flock of parakeets, goats and two horses. Contact Bill at billradford3@gmail.com.
Keeping ahead of a fire
By Bill Radford
“Come home now.”
That was my wife’s demand as I toiled at work in downtown Colorado Springs — and as a grass fire burned out of control near the Colorado Springs Airport.
The fire, which would come to be known as the Meridian fire, was miles from our home, but Margaret was concerned; ferocious winds were doing their best to send the blaze our way.
I figured she was overreacting, but I did get a bit more concerned when I turned onto Garrett Road and saw the very long line of cars backed up on their way out of the area. Obviously those people were taking the threat seriously. And when I turned south to see the clouds of smoke, my concern rose a little more.
While evacuations had been ordered in the area of the fire, we were not even in a pre-evacuation area yet. So I was surprised to learn that Marty Jackson, a longtime friend and experienced horsewoman, was on her way with a friend and two trailers to take our horses and goats to safety.
Still, we’d had fires closer than that before. And while evacuations had been ordered in the area of the fire, we were not even in a pre-evacuation area yet. So I was surprised to learn that Marty Jackson, a longtime friend and experienced horsewoman, was on her way with a friend and two trailers to take our horses and goats to safety.
The two horses were easy to get into a trailer. Our three goats were less cooperative, but after a lot of coaxing and running around, we got them into the other trailer.
I wondered silently if all that commotion was really necessary, if we were acting too proactively. But Marty — who had called Margaret when she heard about the fire and offered to come to the rescue — seemed to read my mind. It was better to act now, she told me, even though it might not be necessary, than to try to get the animals to safety in the middle of the night with flames approaching.
She, after all, had a little experience in that area. It was closer to the middle of the day than the middle of the night, but she had to flee with her horses during the first hours of the Black Forest fire in June of 2013.
There was no warning, no pre-evac; Marty was away from home when word of the fire first came and she had to navigate police blockades to get to her property. The flames were “at my mailbox” by the time more than a dozen horses — hers and boarders — were loaded onto two trailers. She and her wife, Mary, and the young woman living with them at the time also had to round up dogs and cats as they fled. No clothes, no important paperwork, just the lives that were in their care.
“It was scary,” Marty said in a bit of an understatement.
Margaret was on the northwest side of Colorado Springs when she saw the early stages of the Black Forest fire. She kept calling Marty: “Are you out, are you out?”
She wasn’t, but she was working on it. But after getting off the property, she still had to navigate the clogged roads.
They settled in one spot, only to have to flee again when that area became endangered by the fire as well. Ultimately, their horses ended up at a property in Calhan while the humans stayed in a hotel. They were away from home for two weeks, except for a brief return allowed by authorities to check on things.
The fire ended up consuming more than 14,000 acres and destroying over 500 homes. Two lives were lost. Marty and Mary’s house survived; some others nearby did not.
“Everybody remembers that day and what they were doing,” Marty said of that June day when the fire began. “And everybody came together; that’s what was so cool.”
And people came together for the Meridian fire, which burned about 2,500 acres and burned a few outbuildings but no homes, and it never posed a threat to us. But there were several people on Nextdoor, the online community hub, offering to trailer animals out of harm’s way. We drove past the burn area just two days later and it was alarming to see how close the fire had come to homes.
Our horses and goats spent two nights at Marty and Mary’s place in Black Forest and by all accounts had a splendid time. Marty and Mary’s goats weren’t sure what to make of the newcomers, though, and wouldn’t eat or go into their house, so they had to be separated.
We owe a debt of gratitude to Marty; Margaret views the whole experience as “a good practice evacuation.” And now that everyone’s back home, our thoughts are on what could lie ahead. As we head into a typically blustery spring, the advice, as always, is to be prepared. Have and review an evacuation plan for your family and pets, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office advises. Plot alternate ways out of your neighborhood in case the primary route is blocked. And designate a place for family members to meet outside your neighborhood in case you can’t get home. Also, have a “go kit” — an emergency bag — at the ready. Among suggested items: cash, portable radio, prescription medications and eyeglasses, pet food, flashlights and batteries; and copies of important documents (birth certificates, passports, wills, insurance, etc.). For a detailed list, along with information on everything from mitigating wildfire danger to how to be in the know when a wildfire threat occurs, go to https://www.coswildfireready.org/.
