Son of Grand Lake couple killed in disaster pens book
Long before they made national headlines as the sole fatalities of Colorado’s devastating East Troublesome fire, the family of Lyle and Marylin Hileman knew the couple’s story was something special.
From becoming teen parents; to surviving traumatic injuries and illness; working as a mental health nurse and Denver firefighter; raising five children; and finally building their dream home in the mountains, the Hilemans lived enough over their 68-year marriage to fill a book.
And in the wake of their deaths when the fire consumed their yellow Victorian house near Grand Lake, that’s exactly what their son started to do.
Glenn Hileman was one of the last people to speak to his mother the night of Oct. 21, 2020, as his parents watched the East Troublesome fire roar toward their beloved mountain home.
The couple did not evacuate the fire and tried to shelter in a concrete-lined bunker in their basement. They died of asphyxiation and were found, locked arm in arm, two days after the fire destroyed their house, according to Glenn.
“There was so much emotion and shock from the way things unfolded. I started hearing my siblings talking about different experiences they had with my mom and dad, some I had heard before, some I hadn’t, and I started writing them down for my own sake,” he said. “Really it was just from my own grief, and hope of being able to retain some of those stories.”
He kept writing with the encouragement of his wife, who suggested the stories could become a journal or biography to pass on to their children, and the project grew into a book. “A Yellow House in the Mountains: A Story of Love and Refinement,” is set to publish on Feb. 23.
The book chronicles the many highs and lows of Lyle and Marylin Hileman’s lives, including the couple’s unconventional beginning.
Marylin became pregnant at 15 years old, and the couple traveled with their parents outside of Denver to get married so they could avoid the wedding being published in The Denver Post.
“They were a very unlikely match,” Glenn said. “My mom was a church girl, and their life got off to a rough start — my dad was a little bit of a hoodlum. Yet together, they made a commitment and their love kept them moving. They worked really hard to try to be examples to their children.”
And while the book includes some embellishments, Glenn said, the power of their story is the same.
“I feel like they’d smile from above, just knowing that other people can learn from their mistakes,” he said.
The book’s final chapters detail Lyle and Marylin Hileman’s last day — the day the East Troublesome fire exploded into a firestorm, raging across 18 miles in a matter of hours.
Colorado’s second-largest wildfire was sparked by humans on Oct. 14, 2020, 15 miles northeast of Kremmling in the Arapaho National Forest. It grew by 120,000 acres overnight on Oct. 21, 2020, destroying more than 500 homes and other structures. The couple was aware of the wildfire but didn’t expect it to reach Grand Lake for weeks, talking about the steps they took to prepare while eating dinner with a friend the night of Oct. 21.
That same friend tried to reach the Hilemans just hours later when he heard about the fire picking up speed, calling at 8 p.m. to let the couple know he was coming to get them.
Accompanied by a national park ranger, the Hileman’s friend tried to reach their home while dodging trees falling across the road in the firestorm. When they were a mile away, Marylin called back to tell them not to come because it was too dangerous and they wouldn’t be able to get out, Glenn wrote.
Marylin called her son at 9:30 p.m. while she and her husband sheltered in the basement. She was calm, stating that it was “the big one,” and that their neighbor’s house was on fire. She asked Glenn to call his siblings to tell them the couple was safe and together.
By the time Glenn had called his siblings and called her back at 10 p.m., there was no answer.