Colorado Musings: Fire Evacuation

Saturday, December 1: M got a 4:15 am phone call from her boss asking what needed to be taken from her office because the Fern Lake Fire (which started October 9th and caused a pre-evacuation alert that evening) had flared up and the Y was on full evacuation. For the next week the YMCA of the Rockies had a temporary office in town while the firefighters did their jobs as heroes! It was a two room office with a garage/shop attached to the back. One room was the Accounting offices as it was a payroll week and closing the month week.

The garage area housed the computer servers and tables for other departments--IT, Executive team, Conference Office, Human Resources, Fundraising, and Group Sales. The Central Reservations went to Snow Mountain Ranch to work and most of the on-grounds seasonal staff ended up over there also.

On Tuesday, a few of the Y staff were given special permission to go behind the evacuation line in order to get more computer equipment, work on phone lines and get more staff vehicles to transport staff. M was one of the 15 staff that went. When M got to her office, the shovel was still against the door showing that the building had been evacuated and checked that no one was inside. While on property, the helicopters flew over taking much needed water to the fire lines.

That little office building probably had never had so much traffic. The tables were set up with at least 16-20 workstations and with the drop in traffic there was easily 30+ people there sometimes. Quite a chaotic week, but it was amazing to see everyone come together to continue operations as normally as possible. It was also nice to know that the fire drills we've been practicing for 10+ years actually do work as the guests and staff were evacuated in just over 2 hours with no one injured.

After only 3 days at the temporary office and more than 6 days off Y property, the evacuation order was lifted and the tear down started. After the first night where the fire moved 3 miles in 35 minutes, the firefighters kept the fire lines contained within the national park and even though the fire burned less than a mile from our northern boundary, it never spread further.

While the deadline drew near for tear-down, the IT people were busy getting the servers ready as M's boss passed time!!