Waldo Canyon Fire

I wasn't sure if I was going to blog about this, but it was a pretty big event around here. On June 23 a small fire started in Waldo Canyon, which is a beautiful hiking area about 5 miles from the west side of town. The fire quickly became the most important fire to fight in the country because of the proximity of houses and how close it was to a major city. The fire kept getting bigger and bigger and neighborhoods starting going under voluntary evacuations. On Tuesday the 26th, the unbelievable happened and the fire jumped down into Queens Canyon, which is right behind Garden of the Gods where we love to go. Then the winds picked up to 60 mph and the fire rushed down the Canyon jumping from tree to tree. Mandatory evacuations went into place and people had minutes to grab their things and get out of their house. Needless to saying watching this on tv I was a nervous wreck. The part of town that was burning up was where all my high school friends loved and where I spent the majority of my teen years. In the end the fire fighters did an amazing job. By the grace of God only 346 homes were lost along with 2 lives. It should have bee MUCH worse. We were always safe, but we did pack a few things just in case. Tyler played fire fighter constantly for the next 3 weeks and Carter just acted like everything was fine. However he was the first to ask how we can help so the boys took their money to the dollar store and bought a bunch of toys to give to a toy drive for kids who lost everything. I am curious to see if the boys will remember this fire when they are older - I know Justin and I always will.