Somber scenes from wildfires

'It was the most destructive thing I've ever seen'

By Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published April 16, 2008 at 11 p.m.
Updated April 17, 2008 at 11:11 a.m.

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Photo by Photo By Ken Papaleo / The Rocky

A searcher looks for possible victims where a bridge collapsed, killing two firefighters. No bodies were found.

Photo by Photo By Ken Papaleo / The Rocky

Rusty Markus Jr. carries out his grandmother's belongings from her destroyed home in Ordway.

Photo by Photo By Ken Papaleo / The Rocky

UP Bonnie Stoney, left, and son J.T. Frampton look at an empty coffin inside a burned truck Wednesday in Ordway.

A day later, the sickly sweet smell of fire hung in the air. Tendrils of smoke rose from smoldering piles as the people of this small town got their first clear picture of the fury wrought by a leapfrogging blaze that consumed or heavily damaged two dozen buildings and left two firefighters dead.

Greg Korinek stood in silence Wednesday at the corner of Arkansas Avenue and Second Street, staring at a pile of ash and metal - the remnants of the mobile home where he had lived.

He had rushed to his house, hoping to grab something, but was driven away by the wind-whipped fire. Some residents speculated it was started by someone burning trash or weeds southwest of town, though the cause was still under investigation.

"The heat was so hot," Korinek said. "The fire was so powerful. It was the most destructive thing I've ever seen.

"There was nothing anybody could do to stop it."

The Ordway fire, which was 100 percent contained by Wednesday evening, was one of three. A 15-square-mile blaze blackened a remote part of the Army's Fort Carson after claiming the life of a firefighting pilot. And in the mountains of western Colorado, a fire burned about 1 1/2 square miles, damaged two buildings and slightly injured a fisherman.

Gov. Bill Ritter, who earlier had issued an emergency declaration that freed up $500,000 in state aid, arrived in this town of 1,200 about 120 miles southeast of Denver to see the damage firsthand.

Agents from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation were in town, seeking answers about the fire's origin.

"How can I describe it? It's really heartbreaking," said Arthur Montanez Jr., 50, who lost his house and two pet dogs. "We worked our butts off to get this place. We spent our last six years to make this our home. And just in a short time for it to be like this, it's shocking."

Wind was fierce

The first sign of trouble came at 2:09 Tuesday afternoon - a report of a fire burning west of town. In no time a ferocious wind blew in out of the southwest.

"Probably any other day they could have got it under control right away," said Ordway's mayor, Randy Haynes.

The fire flexed its muscle and grew, finding fuel left in the wake of decades of land-use changes that came about as farmers sold off their water to Front Range cities. Ditches that once carried water to irrigated farmland now stood dry, clogged with weeds and brush. Towering cottonwood trees that once drank from the irrigated farmland stood dead, their bark and branches bone dry.

"All these dried-up fields are just a tinderbox," said Chuck McClure, a board member of the Southeast Colorado Water Conservancy District.

The flames danced across farm fields, consuming country homes, then marched up a sapling-studded ditch toward Colorado 96. As it reached the highway, a little over a mile west of town, the blaze found a wooden support bridge over a ditch, devouring the span. The pavement fell into the ditch.

Thick smoke left little or no visibility in the area, and ultimately three vehicles crashed into the ditch. Two vehicles' occupants escaped, but firefighters Terry DeVore and John Schwartz perished when their firetruck fell in it.

For a time Wednesday, investigators feared they might find remains of more victims in a charred minivan that crashed into the ditch, but they later learned the occupants fled and were not hurt.

Down the road, a man transporting an empty coffin got caught by fast-moving flames and bailed out of his SUV. It burned at the side of the road.

Utility workers busy

For a while residents feared the fire would destroy all of Ordway. It did roar into the southwest side of town, taking some homes, leaving others. The flames spread here and there - wiping out a feedlot, taking more homes on the north side.

The blaze charred 8,900 acres in Crowley County and damaged or destroyed 24 structures, from barns to houses, fire spokesman Chris Sorensen said.

By mid-afternoon Wednesday, workers with the Colorado Department of Transportation had unloaded giant silver pipes that will be used to help build a temporary road around the burned-out bridge. Across the county, utility workers scampered up poles to string new electric cables in places where the old ones melted and fell.

Power was on in much of Ordway, and Ritter said officials hoped to have it restored in other areas of the county by late today.

A temporary shelter was set up, and the Colorado Department of Corrections brought in five trailers as temporary housing. Both of the firefighters who died had been corrections officers at the state prison just west of Ordway.

Across town, the blaze's fickle nature was on display.

At one home along County Road 17.5, chickens clucked in a pen just a few feet from a smoking hole in the ground where only the chimney of a home stood. Out in the yard, the aluminum wheels of a car glimmered in puddles - melted by the flames.

But across the road, Jeff Kuhn's house and barn stood, unharmed.

He lost some fences, some animal pens, and lots of trees but considered himself fortunate.

"I can rebuild the fences," he said.

Not far away, the new Ward Middle School and community library were spared, as was Main Street and most of the town's homes.

Others, however, were devoured.

At Jorene Markus' home, the entire middle section of the roof sagged, the aftermath of flames that licked across the driveway to a cedar bush, jumped up a wall and burned into the attic.

"You can see through the roof in most of the house," said her son, Rick Markus.

Up the street was the remains of Korinek's home.

Just a couple steps away from a bathtub, exposed in the rubble, sat his red Toyota pickup. The passenger side mirror was melted onto the door, and the paint was scorched, but the vehicle was, by and large, intact and operable.

And Korinek found that amazing, especially when he considered that he fled only with his life and the clothes on his back - a pair of boots, jeans, a T-shirt, and a caramel-colored jacket.

"I feel like I'm in a dream," he said. "It hit me real hard.

"I know it isn't a dream, but I wish it was."

News staff writers Lynn Bartels and Bill Scanlon and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

• April 17, 2008

  8:26 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Squatch writes:

  That picture is painful I personally wouldnt have taken it but thankfully it isnt my job.

• April 17, 2008

  9:07 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  fishtanksamurai writes:

  Once again we see the extreme poor taste of the Rocky Mountain News.

• April 17, 2008

  10:12 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  jonnyrotten writes:

  Extremely poor judgement. Was that photo really necessary? Would the Photographer or Editor like their own childern photographed in this same situation? Speaking as a father, I would be furious.

  May God watch over them and protect them.

• April 17, 2008

  11 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  FallyBerry writes:

  First, she didn't break into the family's home to take pictures, she was allowed in, obviously. The job of the news photographer is to tell the story regardless of how painful it can be. Do some research before you lash out at a journalist for showing you something. This photographer just won a Pulitzer Prize for the way she brings painful stories to light for the rest of us to see. Yes it is painful. Is it necessary? Maybe not, but without pictures, do you really know the story of this family?
  In theory yes but in reality, those boys who lost their father are now etched in your memory, not because they suffer from having a picture taken, but because they lost their father. Speaking as a mother, jonnyrotten, you have the right to tell the news you don't want them in your house. That is your choice.
  The pictures we see everyday are the ones that convince you to do something, say something or take action somehow. But you have to consider, without faces with the names would you feel as strongly for people?
  This is a terrible situation, don't take it out on someone who is simply doing her job to show you what happened, to help you understand how it feels. She obviously did a very good job.

• April 17, 2008

  12:35 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  jonnyrotten writes:

  Falley... To really "etch" this in my mind how about some graphic photos of the deceased, or how about some close-up shots of the other 6 grieving children who have just lost their fathers. How else could we "really know the story". The only objective is to "feel stongly for these people" right? I was not questining the quality of the photo, (mabe another Pulitzer Prize winner?) You have a right to your opinion. MY OPINION is that the photo was in poor taste.

• April 17, 2008

  1:14 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  BTP writes:

  I echo most of the views here. I found the photo on today's RMN to be extremely out of line. These boys are entitled to grieve without the world imposing on that grief. Big booooo's to the Rocky Mountain News on this insensitivity!

• April 17, 2008

  1:18 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  siedsm writes:

  Preston Gannaway and Staff,

  I am very saddened to see the photo of Jake and Cody Schwartz on the front page. Perhaps saddened is not the proper word to use to describe how I truly felt at the sight of the young men in their grief. I am constantly astounded by the media. When I look at that picture I see the soul of their father leaving their lives forever and the immense emotional pain they are probably experiencing for the first time in their lives. To me, and I hope to a lot of people that still cherish their privacy, this is stealing the most personal of human emotions. It is disrespectful of them and their father. It seems as though the camera and the person holding it, took a snapshot of their tremendous pain, the breaking of hearts and spirits that will never heal or forget that day. The only things we are capable of possessing and not forced to reveal are our thoughts and our feelings. I feel as though you have stolen those from these kids. Some things are not meant for display. I wish your paper was more respectful of these young men and their horrific loss. It angers me that you’re not and even scares me that maybe you don’t even consider one’s feelings and pain or their privacy when they are so defenseless.

• April 17, 2008

  1:38 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Scott writes:

  FallyBerry,

  Is that view what they taught you to say in your draft-dodger, err I mean "journalism" courses? Even if someone is dumb enough to invite a newsie into their home, the newsie is "suppose" to exercise discretion. Discretion comes along with being an adult. We, the unwashed masses, do NOT need you vultures to show us photos to help us feel compassion. Your "profession" is just a bunch of arrogant asses.

  Newsies, the third lowest form of life. Right above politicians and lawyers.

  Scott

• April 17, 2008

  2:34 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  wow writes:

  FallyBerry asserts that the boys suffer not from having their picture taken, but from having lost their father. True, for the most part, if we don't consider the initial intrusion of strangers in the house when the boys should have been allowed to grieve in relative peace and security. True, if months from now, they don't stumble accross the picture, and have to relive that moment.

  I suggest that in addition to those hurts that the boys have been exposed to, we, the readers, have been hurt too.
  I am a stranger to those boys, and I know I cannot do anything to help them. By showing me those pictures, RMN invites me to intrude, like a nosy neighbor peeking through a window. I come away feeling a little less human every time they do it.
  Freedom of the press is an essential right, and a massive responsibility. It wasn't meant to invite this type of abuse, and it wasn't meant to inspire competition over who can take the most "moving" photos.
  I hope that no one has, or ever will, click the "buy photo" tab on that picture of Jake and Cody. The grief of children should not be for sale.

• April 17, 2008

  2:54 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  eagleye writes:

  I too felt that that picture (which seems to have been removed from the website) was inappropriate and felt intrusive. FallyBerry is certainly right that the photographer didn't just barge into the home, but was undoubtedly invited in. Yet the picture still seemed to be contrived. She must have sat in the living room, camera poised, waiting for the story of the boys' father's death to come on the news so she could snap the picture.

  I think it would be one thing to take a candid shot (with the family's permission) from a distance, in a public place. But this one just smacked of emotional manipulation, and made me feel voyeuristic just by viewing it.

• April 17, 2008

  2:59 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  FallyBerry writes:

  That's humorous Scott that you'd consider journalism courses "draft-dodger" courses when journalists are embedded with troops in the worst and most dangerous places in the world risking their lives to get the truth, and if journalism is the root of all evil, what are you doing here? Sports page? You don't appreciate one picture. I get it. I know how it feels believe it or not I've seen my family hurt by a picture published by a newspaper far worse than this one.
  You are entitled to your opinion as am I. It's hard to know the answers to anything when we don't live in the future, but insulting people isn't necessary, state your opinion and be done with it.
  As far as causing these boys pain in the future no one can know that. Maybe it will, but maybe they stumble upon the picture and they remember how bad they were hurting then, and realize that it's getting better.

• April 17, 2008

  4:28 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  wow writes:

  GWM---
  I'm not going to send them a scold, though I'd like to. They will make a story about all the people who wrote with an opinion, and post it tomorow with a poll.
  RMN has absolutely no shame.

• April 17, 2008

  4:54 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  wow writes:

  Missed you guys too. Been burnt out and tired of the news, playing ostrich.
  Got sand in my eye. It was pretty bad.
  I expect Preston to arrive with his equipment any moment.

• April 17, 2008

  5:03 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  FallyBerry writes:

  GWM what exactly were you expecting me to address?

• April 17, 2008

  5:41 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  wow writes:

  It probably wasn't the slightest bit awkward for those boys, having a STRANGER in the room with a camera, talking to them, staring at them, waiting for the right moment, then FLASH, thanks for your time, I'm done here, sorry for your loss, blah, blah, blah.
  They were helpless, and numb, and are children.
  FallyBerry, I studied Journalism for a while, changed my major to Anthropology, then Philosophy.
  I know the difference between right and wrong, and as a news consumer, I know what I need to see.
  I could have lived forever, never seeing that photo.
  I feel like an ass for even looking at it. It made me feel dirty.
  How can you defend that?

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