Two-headed dragon nears more homes
Ronny Wells sat in a high school classroom with about 15 of his neighbors waiting to hear whether the Spring Creek fire destroyed his Fort Garland home.
A Costilla County employee stood at the front of the classroom with a stack of photos. Each had an image of someone’s property.
“Some of us got photographs of destroyed homes and others got pictures of their homes as it looks today,” Wells said. “One woman was in the back of the room crying.”
His neighbor’s house was spared, but the home Wells built 34 years ago wasn’t.
All that remained of the three-bedroom home he nicknamed Rosenlaui after a mountain climbing school he attended as a young man was a pile of rubble and a twisted metal staircase.
The Wellses are among a group of 104 homeowners who have lost their homes or family cabins since the fire started last Wednesday.
An arid landscape, high winds and hot temperatures have all fueled the fast moving blaze. Within a week it has grown to be the fourth largest wildfire in Colorado history, ripping through nearly 80,000 acres in Costilla and Huerfano counties. More than 2,000 people have been evacuated and most of them are still waiting to see if their home is next.
“It’s an interesting fire,” said John Peterson, the information officer for the Spring Creek fire. “You’ll see two huge columns of smoke out there, but it’s really from the same fire.”
That’s because firefighters managed to stop its advance in the middle, but they couldn’t keep it from spreading to the north and south. Locals have nicknamed it the doubleheaded dragon.
And the firebreathing dragon’s two heads are causing all sorts of problems for firefighters. To the north there’s a subdivision called Navajo Ranch and to the south there’s Pine Haven and Cuchara.
“We have people’s homes that are going to be impacted today,” Peterson said on Tuesday. “Hundreds of homes out there. It’s going to move into those subdivisions and homes will be lost.”
That’s the uncertainty Cory Fassiotto thinks about every night before he goes to sleep at a friend’s house in La Veta.
“We’ve had some close friends of ours lose houses,” Fassiotto said. “Right now we’re the lucky ones and hope it stays that way.”
Fassiotto’s family can trace their roots in the valley back more than 100 years. He spends his summers in Cuchara and now owns the Dog Bar and Grill in town.
July is normally his busiest month of the year. It’s so busy that Fassiotto and his wife of just one week delayed their honeymoon so they could run the bar for the summer.
He’s been in touch with his insurance company in case the worst happens, but what worries him more is how his employees will manage without the tips they’ve come to rely on as part of their income.
“Taking a good three or four weeks out of the biggest part of their time is hard,” Fassiotto said.
Fassiotto’s pretty certain his family will rebuild if they lose their homes or businesses.
“We’ve invested so much into the valley,” he said.
Wells is less certain about his future. He’s 78 and his wife is 77.
If they decide to move on, Wells said he will miss his view of the mountains. He wrote three books looking out the window of his home office. And his family cut down a Christmas tree from their own property almost every year.
“We had a wood burning fireplace,” Wells said. “When it was burning at night and the Christmas tree was glowing it was magical.”
In the coming days, officials from Costilla and Huerfano counties hope to notify more evacuees about the status of their properties.
That means Fassiotto, his parents or his new inlaws could find themselves sitting in a classroom for a notification meeting waiting on their own photos.
Fassiotto hopes his picture will have a house.