Blog: a web log
06/08/2003: "Residents rebuilding on Hayman fire anniversary"
LAKE GEORGE, Colo. (AP) - A cloud of fog recently rolled across this tree-draped, blackened valley where Colorado's largest wildfire burned last summer. Anxious residents dialed 911; some even cried.
''You couldn't smell smoke but you could see this dense gray coming at us,'' innkeeper Bani Kurth said. ''Like deja vu, here comes the fire. We're going to have to leave again.''
Homeowners are cautiously returning to rebuild retirement nests, vacation cabins and homes destroyed in the 138,000-acre Hayman fire started a year ago Sunday by a then-U.S. Forest Service employee.
The blaze raced through the rolling foothills, gobbling up trees and vegetation left tinder-dry by years of drought. It crawled to the southern fringe of metropolitan Denver as it burned for 24 days, destroying 151 structures, including 133 homes. (Trib.com)
Read the minute-by-minute account in the Pinecam Blog Archive
