Nightmare became reality this summer when residents of Basalt and El Jebel were forced to evacuate their homes and take refuge in evacuation shelters in the wake of the raging Lake Christine Fire. With soaring temperatures and a massive drought, the Roaring Fork Valley was hot and dry this summer. On July 3rd these conditions became detrimental when two Basalt residents were firing tracer rounds at the shooting range their bullets caused the dry foliage to ignite, causing a forest fire.

AHS senior and Basalt resident Annabelle Ward lives in one of almost 1,000 homes (estimated as of July 7th) that were evacuated.

“I was headed to the 4th of July Parade in Aspen and I’ve never been in a natural disaster before, so I didn’t really think anything would happen,” Ward explained.

Beginning on the evening of the 4th this situation became very urgent. El Jebel and Basalt residents received Pitkin Alert texts that read, “Lake Christine Evacuation EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, AND EXTENDING UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE…THIS AREA IS AT IMMEDIATE RISK FROM WILDFIRE.”

“They told us that day we had to evacuate, and only gave us twenty minutes notice. I didn’t have a chance to get anything from the house,” Ward said.

She also added, that along with so many other residents, her family was forced to leave behind sentimental family photo albums and heirlooms. Ward recalls standing near the Basalt elementary school and watching as the fire rapidly progressed.

“I was really upset and on the phone with my mom who was out of town, and I couldn’t stop thinking about everything we had to leave behind as we watched the fire race down the hill towards town,” Ward said.  

Becky Oliver, who teaches in the elementary school, lived through a similar experience when she was forced to leave her home in Blue Lake. After watching the progress of the fire all day on the 4th, at around nine pm, she and her husband decided they needed to leave.

“To me, the scariest part of it was that it went from 65 degrees to 95 degrees just like that. Ash started falling from the sky, and it smelled awful,” Oliver said.

She described the scene as that of a war zone.

“For me, it was just so frightening. There were flashing lights and sirens, and the police were running up and down the traffic with their sirens and their loudspeakers yelling ‘get out now!’ and that just was awful,” Oliver said.

Hannah Zanin, a junior at AHS, was another student who experienced the impact of the fire when her family needed to evacuate horses from their ranch in Missouri Heights. Zanin commented she felt that the local authorities handled the situation as well as possible and prevented the impact of the fire from damaging or destroying any more infrastructure.

“I felt like everything went really well, compared to what it could have been,” Zanin said. She added, “There was a facebook page that was super helpful so we could check for updates.”

Ward echoed this sentiment. “Obviously we are all so grateful to the firefighters. They put themselves in so much danger working to save homes. But I am also really glad the local authorities did such a great job keeping everyone in the loop about the fire and updating everyone as much as possible.”

Oliver commented that she was grateful the community was able to show their gratitude to the firefighters in a parade in the aftermath of some of the worst days of the fire.

“I loved, loved, loved going to the parade to thank the all the firefighters and hotshot crews, and we all sat there cheering for them,” Oliver said. “It was cool to see our community pull together to show them what we are all about, and show great appreciation for what they’ve done for us.”

The Lake Christine Fire was a tragedy, but in the wake of this very frightening event the Roaring Fork Valley community came together to support affected families and made the best of a difficult situation.