Our place is midway between the red line and the lower center of the blue square. About a quarter mile from the fire front at its closest.

This is in Frémont County, CO.

The Iron Mountain Fire occurred in June, 2002. We were still in the process of moving up here.

The fire began from a toppled charcoal grill located at the lower left on the map where the red line makes a kind of point. While not everything in the red outline burned, most of the trees, houses, cars, etc., did. The fire sread sideways from the point because the origin was at the base of Elk Mountain.

This is as close as the fire got to our place. We live near the base of this mountain near the end of the road in the middle.  If the wind had changed, the fire would likely have worked its way down the slope and taken off again across our neighborhood.

This is from the location to which we evacuated after the fire crews forced everyone to leave.

These were of the fire before we evacuated. The fire is actually in the bowl behind the ridge which Deer Mountain wraps around. Most of that area was totally scorched.

This was actually one of the more scary moments during the whole thing. The wind had stalled, largely due to the heat from the fire itself. Then began to go north. If this had continued, a new fire front over a mile wide would have opened and headed straight for us, the fire station to the east and probably trapped a lot of fire fighters.

These are runs of the slurry bombers making drops on Deer Mountain. The fire spotters were trying to prevent the fire from moving into unburned areas if the wind did change.

The fire front had moved off to the east, down the valley. But there were still a lot of hot spots in the burned zone which created flare-ups and smoke.

We could also still hear loud pops or booms. We assumed these were exploding propane tanks but it turns out they were car tires bursting. Not one propane tank exploded; the safety relief valves worked and they were all recoverable.

This is a closeup of the top of Deer Mountain above our place. Even though the fire had moved on, there were still flames and smoldering trees up there.

This is the back of the fire as it moves on down the valley toward Iron Mountain, about two miles away. Later, as the sun was setting, I learned that those columns of smoke are not exactly what they appear. Inside those roiling columns, the fire was burning vigorously. It was eerie to be able to see streaks of fire high in the column. I didn't get a picture of that phenomenon.

This was amazing! We were watching the fire from the intersection of the County Road and our road when this plane flew right out of the smoke!! I have no idea how he navigated his way without flying into one of the mountains between us and the airport to the east in Pueblo where the slurry loading facility was located.

He isn't easy to see in the left picture but is between the tops of the two power poles. Click the picture (or any other picture) to see a larger version which is clearer.

This Donna and K.C., our neighbor, walking Dee from our barn. We put her in the pens on the right which belonged to the leasor of the School Section across the road (the blue area on the map).

She was having a serious problem with her foot and K. C. volunteered to help her lead Dee. One time on the rip, Dee smelled smoke and spooked but most of the time thought this was great adventure.

This is another picture of us evacuees. Some of them I had never met until now. A few stopped briefly for a conference and left again. At least one "evacuee" seemed a tad suspicious.

Looting went on during and after the fire. One of our neighbors couldn't believe his charcoal grill was stolen during the fire! Several horses were unaccounted for for a week or more but eventually found and returned so no rustling occurred.

This is the beginning of the aftermath photos.

This was a nice log home. The rock steps is the only evidence it ever existed.

An aerial view of a small portion of the burn zone. The white places are the ashes of homes. The trees are black places, and the burned grass across the road is brown.

The red vehicle in lower left is a tractor which was either spared or came in to fight hotspots. The light coloered vehicle at upper right is fire damaged.

(This photo not by me.)

This teepee was completely surrounded by burned trees. This was such an unusual oddity, the teepee was one of the most photographed things in the burn zone.

This is also the only thing this couple owned which survived at their lot. Even their well pump burned.

As you can see, their bus, the flatbed trailer (visible to the right of the bus' hood), the storge shed (the sheet metal in the foreground), and their modular home (to the right and behind the sheet metal). They got out with their two running vehicles and the camper.

Speaking of cars, this was theirs, also. And illustrates how hot the fire was.

The glass in the windows melted right out of the frames. The bumper was just a puddle on the ground.

Firefighting Aircraft

We got to watch a lot of aircraft in action fighting this forest fire. This is the bucket helicopter. It went back and forth from a storage pond on Texas Creek to the west to different parts of the burn zone. He dipped the bucket in the pond and picked up about a 100 gallons then fly over a hot spot or burning stump and dowse it. Note the stream of water off the top of the bucket as he flew.

This is a Skycrane with a water tank suspended from its belly. The obscene looking thing hanging down is the filler hose. This machine hovers over water a foot or more deep and takes a deep drink. Then carries the 1000 or so gallons to the fire.

While it's cool to watch, I hate to think about how much fuel this sucks up an hour!

This pass went right over our place. Or maybe he saw me taking pictures and did it on purpose! I have no way of knowing but this shot really shows the belly tank.