`HORRIFYING` DAY ANOTHER IN LONG LINE FOR EVACUEES

THE FORECAST
Chance of
a gusty storm
SUNDAY
June 24, 2012
High today: 101
Low tonight: 66
PAGE C12
WWW.COLORADOAN.COM
THE
HIGH
PARK
FIRE
An aerial view of Glacier View taken Saturday after smoke cleared the area. SAM NOBLETT/THE COLORADOAN
GROWING ON THE WIND
Unpredictable High Park Fire explodes
to 81,190 acres, sparing many Glacier
View homes while scorching others
FULL ASSAULT
Estes Park
blaze near
RMNP
burns
21 homes
FIRE FACTS
By Bobby Magill
BobbyMagill@coloradoan.com
and Madeline Novey
» Acres: 81,190
MadelineNovey@coloradoan.com
» Containment: 45 percent
As the High Park Fire exploded to 81,190 acres Saturday, becoming the secondlargest wildfire in Colorado’s
recorded history, firefighters made progress in protecting unburned areas in Rist
and Redstone canyons despite extremely dry and hot
conditions.
That progress came a day
after a spot fire traveled
through Glacier View Meadows’ 12th filing on Friday,
burning an unknown number
of homes.
Larimer County underSheriff Bill Nelson told evacuees Saturday evening that
the spot fire did not spread
during the day and filings 9,
10 and11remained unburned.
And, he said, the High Park
Fire did not claim any more
homes on Saturday.
Authorities are coming up
with a list of damaged properties in the Glacier View
Meadows 12th filing, but on
Saturday they had no tally of
homes lost in that area.
» Resources: 1,923 people, 15
helicopters and 5 heavy air tankers, in addition to support aircraft
» Cost to date: $27.6 million
By Bobby Magill
» Weather: Red-flag warning in
effect for Sunday
BobbyMagill@coloradoan.com
NEW PRE-EVACUATION
ORDER
For the Bonner Peak area from
Springs Ranch Road on U.S.
Highway 287 north to County
Road 76H, west to County Road
37, south to County Road 74E,
and back east to U.S. 287 .
Fire lines have been
mopped up to within 100 feet
of the edge of Glacier View
Meadows, said Reid Armstrong, U.S. Forest Service
High Park Fire public information officer.
The 10,000-acre spot fire
at Glacier View Meadows ran
eight miles on Friday but was
Marco Bendoni, right, sits with his wife, Veralyn, and their dog, Zola, in a room at the
Plaza Hotel on Saturday after being evacuated. SAM NOBLETT/THE COLORADOAN
‘HORRIFYING’ DAY ANOTHER
IN LONG LINE FOR EVACUEES
By Robert Allen
RobertAllen@coloradoan.com
The High Park Fire’s astonishingly
rapid spread into Glacier View Meadows couldn’t have come at a worse time
for the Bendonis, who returned from a
grocery errand to armed soldiers
blocking the road home.
Marco Bendoni’s wife, Veralyn, is re-
covering from surgery and needed a
break from lying in bed for two days. Marco had offered to let her sit in the car while
he drove 30 minutes southeast to King
Soopers in Fort Collins at 2 p.m. Friday.
Cash and clothing were set aside for
evacuation, but fire conditions had appeared nonthreatening. So they left them
See EVACUEES, Page A5
See ESTES, Page A4
See FIRE, Page A4
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ESTES PARK — Thanks to
air power that was diverted
from fighting the High Park
Fire, helicopters were able to
launch a full assault on a new
fire that exploded in a residential area on the edge of
Rocky Mountain National
Park on Saturday.
The Woodland Heights
Fire had burned at least 20
acres and destroyed at least
21 structures by 8 p.m. Saturday in the High Drive area
just east of the national
park’s Beaver Meadows entrance, near U.S. Highway 36
and Colorado Highway 66,
said Reid Armstrong, U.S.
Forest Service public information officer for the High
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THE COLORADOAN, SUNDAY, JUNE 24, 2012 A5
THE HIGH PARK FIRE
Evacuees
see flames — again
Continued from Page A1
at home.
“I figured I’d get her out for
a minute and let her sit in the
car for the ride, and she never
had to (get out),” Marco said.
Little did he know, fire
evacuations started the same
time he was leaving their
home in Glacier View’s fourth
filing. The wildfire had
jumped the Poudre River and
exploded northward. Red
Feather Lakes Road was
closed.
“We were 15 minutes too
late,” he said. “I had just the
clothes on my back. Nothing.”
Veralyn, who had a hand
ligament replaced with one
from her foot and was supposed to remain in bed, was
without her medications and
extra wraps for her arm. The
couple would spend that night
at the Hilton Fort Collins. With
no rooms available Saturday,
they had to move to the Plaza
Inn on East Mulberry Road.
“Everything’s
in
my
home,” said Marco, 35, as
tears welled in his eyes. “It’s
one of those things you think it
will never happen to you. And
it has, and we don’t know when
they’re going to let us back in.”
Their 5-year-old Rottweiler, Zola, was left at home.
Marco’s parents, who also live
in Glacier View, got her in a
“frantic” effort that also included dog food, a computer,
some food and cell phone chargers, he said.
But in the rush, they didn’t
get the cash, clothing or medication. The Bendonis on Saturday went to Poudre Valley
Hospital to get supplies for
Veralyn before returning to
the hotel.
Marco said he has friends
from Rist Canyon who’ve resorted to camping out during
the two weeks they’ve been
evacuated. He’s on disability
after he suffered injuries
The Woodland Heights Fire is burning near the Beaver Meadows entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. COURTESY OF LARRY STEWARD
when he was hit by a car as a
child. Living on a budget, he
said, the experience has been
“horrifying.”
“I’m praying and hoping
that it will be fine, and we’ll be
able to go home,” he said. “It’s
just heartbreaking.”
Man watches home
he built burn
When his “baby” went up in
flames, Gary Weixelman
could see it on TV.
“It was wrenching, emotionally wrenching,” he said,
describing the home engulfed
in the High Park Fire. “I’ve
never seen something this bad
move this fast in my life.”
He’d been the general contractor for the home’s construction on Black Mountain
Court in the 12th filing of Glacier View Meadows, overseeing it from conception to completion. He’d planned everything, from the windows to the
color of the roof, with the couple who bought it.
“I’m sure they probably
saw it on the news, too. But at
least they know that their
house is gone,” Weixelman
said, adding there’s uncertainty for many families with
homes in the area.
Weixelman, with Continental West Realty, has a special
connection to the subdivision:
His father developed it in the
early 1970s.
Glacier View is on 5,000
acres about 35 miles northwest of Fort Collins. It has 550
homes on lot sizes between
one and 10 acres. The hills and
valleys border the Roosevelt
National Forest and are filled
with Ponderosa pines, Douglas firs, junipers and aspen.
The fire swiftly entered the
12th filing Friday afternoon
with hot, dry, windy conditions forcing firefighters to
retreat.
Weixelman, who has returned to his own home after
evacuating after the fire began June 9, said it will take
“years and years” for recovery from the wildfire.
“The nice thing is areas
where trees are partially damaged and still have green
tops,” he said. “They could
make it.”
Waiting out the fire:
living out of boxes
“Another planet,” “a big
piece of charcoal” and “toast”
are how Asa Ziebell describes
the scene around his Rist Canyon home, from which he was
evacuated two weeks ago.
The High Park Fire has
caused disruption for at least
1,000 people, from people who
were evacuated briefly and
returned home to re-evacuees
and people who haven’t seen
their homes since June 9. Ziebell, 27, is one of thosewho’ve
been on full evacuation the
whole time.
“It’s just a bummer for everybody,” he said.
He and his significant other are staying at a hotel, in a
room surrounded by boxes of
items they were able to take
with them. Ziebell has once
been able to sneak a peek at
the wreckage and said the
home he rents is still standing.
It’s surrounded by rock landscaping, and he’d worked to
mitigate fire danger before
the fire started.
But uninsured vehicles
have burned, as have the tools
he uses as a contractor. Between the tools and the
blocked-off fire zone, Ziebell
hasn’t worked in the past two
weeks.
Ziebell said he’s lived in the
mountains more than two
years, and he moved to the
place he lives now in May. The
last home he lived in has been
destroyed in the fire, he said.
His neighborhood was “not
very” prepared, he said, adding fire mitigation can be expensive and sometimes it
doesn’t even matter.
Poudre Park residents
Poudre Park residents
have been watching fires for
most of the past five weeks.
They were displaced for 12
days after the High Park Fire
started June 9, and they were
able to return home for only
one day before the evacuation
orders came again. Some refused to leave; others are
camping.
This is the third time
flames have been visible from
Poudre Park since the Hewlett
Fire started on the north side
of the canyon in mid-May. A
red slurry stain is still visible
on Mount Webster, and the
High Park Fire has ripped a
scar into a ridgeline on the
canyon’s south side.
On Saturday, residents reported flames on a southwestfacing ridge in Hewlett Gulch
northwest of the roughly 40member community.
Steve Den had planned to
stay. He spent Friday night in
his residence on the Poudre
River, waking to see a snowlike layer of ash on his Nissan
pickup truck. The smoke and
ash, he could stand, Den said.
But once he saw flames starting to descend toward Poudre
Canyon, he packed his dog and
a few other items and returned to Ted’s Place. After
camping there for nearly two
weeks during a prior evacuation, he’s back.
Another Poudre Park resident, who declined to share his
name, slept on a cot with his
dog outside the Red Cross
evacuation center at Cache La
Poudre Middle School.
He said the forests around
Poudre Park “looked like a
fairy tale land” with smoke
hanging low. He said the fires
popping up in Colorado are
“apocalyptic,” adding it’s “just
good to be alive.”
HAS YOUR HOME
BEEN DAMAGED OR
DESTROYED BY FIRE?
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wildfire, Allstate is ready to help. All you have
to do is call 1-800-547-8676 or go to Allstate.com
to report a claim. Your Allstate Agent can also
help. Don’t worry, just call us and we will help
you get the claims process started.
ALLSTATE CATASTROPHE CLAIMS SERVICE:
1-800-547-8676
FC-0000337831
Homeowners
Did smoke, soot, or ash
cover your property?
Fort Collins and all Northern Colorado
residence owners and business building
owners affected by the High Park Fire:
You may be eligible
for a soot and ash
cash settlement.
Go to
www.SootAndAsh.com
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