Rebuilding After The Marshall Fire

On December 30, 2021 life changed very quickly as our home was destroyed by the Marshall Fire. What seemed like any other day quickly became a race to save ourselves. We're used to seeing smoke in the distance, it's Colorado and it's been dry and longer than it normally should be. But in the space of about 15 minutes, those clouds quickly changed colors and we knew we needed to move quickly. With only time to grab our animals, Kat grabbed Delta (our dog) and got Sunny (one of our cats) into a kennel and rushed to the first floor. During this, Taco (the black and white cat) became more and more frantic, doing everything he could not to be put in his carrier. Getting away, he ran under the bed just as Kat yelled out that she could see flames out the back window. Running out of time, I was able to get Taco from under the bed, into a carrier, and grabbed my wallet and keys and ran out the door to meet Kat and the other animals and drive away. We had the clothes we were wearing, our animals and nothing else; Kat didn't even have time to put on socks or shoes before we ran.

The video at the top shows how quickly that day changed for us, and that all of us were dirty but safe. Good friends were able to give us a quick place to land and regroup, but now the rebuilding of our lives begins. We are working with insurance, but those processes are slow, and really any little bit can help us get those necessities (we're finding out how strange it is to not even have the simplest things).