Written by Jeanette (Sears) Yoder

Louisville Colorado is home to Stan and Jeanette (Sears) Yoder.  I was asked to write about the devastating grass fire that burned thru parts of Louisville and Superior, two small towns in Boulder County divided by the Denver to Boulder freeway. We lived through this fire! Here is the story.

On December 30th, 2021, we woke up to high wind warnings with wind coming out of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.  That is not unusual, so we went about our plans for the day. Stan and I live in this small Colorado town, Louisville, along with our daughter Megan and Granddaughter, Scarlett. Our daughter Theresa, husband Chad and Granddaughter Mia lived in a house down the street.

Our two daughters had purchased a home in the neighboring town of Golden that they are remodeling. That morning Stan and Chad left Louisville early for Golden to work on the home that our daughters had purchased. Theresa and Mia had supplies to get on their way out to the house. Theresa and Mia called to tell us about the fire and the heavy smoke on the road.

Megan and I had stayed in Louisville to get some things done at home. When I opened the door to let the dogs in later that morning, I smelled smoke and started looking for where it was.  The sky was full of smoke.  The wind was moving the fire in several directions gusting up to 100 mph.  The police and firemen only had time to drive through the neighborhoods with speakers yelling “get out, get out now!!!”  

Megan and I grabbed a few clothes, meds, pet food, pet beds, two dogs and one cat. With this small number of essentials, we headed to Theresa’s, (her house was only a block away) to get her cat, dog and a few more things we would need.  Theresa and granddaughter Mia had been caught in the heavy smoke on the freeway to Boulder and were not allowed to come back into the neighborhood. 

Thank God for cell phones! Megan and Theresa began communicating on what to get and how to get away.  Megan and I loaded what we needed in 20 minutes and evacuated in two cars.

While all this was going on, we called Stan and let him know we had to evacuate.  He immediately booked rooms for all of us in a hotel east of Louisville.  We were to head there and meet the rest of the family.

Megan and I found bumper-to-bumper traffic as soon as we got on the main road that led out of the neighborhood.  We inched forward letting cars from side streets in as we went.  We were told to go North or East to get away from the fire, but by the time we made it to where we could go east, the street was packed with cars.  We were directed to turn left, heading west.  As we headed toward the foothills, you could see the smoke and fire approaching the road we were on.  The first street where we could turn North was jammed with cars.  This evacuation was not going to be fast, or easy.

Meg said we need to go to the next northbound street because the fire was so close.  Part of the time we lost sight of each other’s auto, but our cell phones kept us connected.  The next northbound thru street that would get us to an eastbound street had lighter traffic. We could at least move now. However, it took three hours to get to the hotel.  We watched on TV as the neighborhoods around our homes burned to the ground. We were hoping for the best.

Early the next morning Stan took off to see if we still had houses.  We were fortunate.  The fire had burned to the south, west, and north of us. 

We had no gas.  The power company provided 2 electric heaters per house to keep pipes from freezing and we were getting snow.   After 2 nights with pets in hotels, we moved back to the house.  The electric heaters would keep us warm enough.  They lifted the evacuation a few days after we moved in when the gas was safe to turn on.  We boiled water for about a week after that. 

Many homes burned to ashes.  For several days, the fireman were watching hot spots. The water system lost pressure due to fire fighting efforts so we were under a boil water order.  The city gave us cases of water, 1 case for every person in our house.  For the 1000+ families that lost everything, it is devastating.  The houses that somehow survived have soot and ash issues with the seal of windows broken by the wind.  It will be many years to build back the neighborhoods that are just gone, entire blocks gone.  The community is strong and we see a lot of people helping others.  The schools were cleaned and reopened on time with counselors to help the kids.  As I walk past the burned areas, I can see green grass starting to come back.