1 ## Black Forest Fire 2013 ##
3 Our home which was the hosting site for gag.com fell victim to a forest fire
4 which began on 11 June 2013. Our house was <em>very</em> close to where
5 the fire started, so we had no real warning and feel very lucky to have escaped
6 with our lives, our pets, and a few of our most precious possessions. This was
7 the second really significant forest fire in the Colorado Springs area in less
8 than one year, and is the worst fire in Colorado history in terms of
9 structure loss... the count of destroyed homes is over 500.
11 Our property is on an edge of the burn area, so while we lost the house,
12 greenhouse, and one of our sheds... our other shed and many of our trees
13 survived. So we quickly decided to re-build on the same property, and hoped
14 a new house would be ready by late summer 2014. In the meantime, we leased
15 a 2-bedroom apartment in nearby Colorado Springs.
17 We slept for the first time in our wonderful new house on 27 September 2014.
19 If you want to hear more about our experience, feel free to view the video
21 [talk at Linux Conf Australia](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJcnllq3VYY)
22 about the fire and some of the lessons we learned.
26 For those of you who asked how you could help us restore and rebuild,
27 thank you. We put together several wishlists and a registries of items we
28 needed to get started in the apartment, all of which were quickly and
29 completely filled. We are extremely grateful to have so many kind and
30 generous friends both in the Colorado Springs area, and all over the world!
32 Many of the others in Black Forest who lost homes actually need help much
34 we do. The [Pikes Peak Community Foundation](http://www.ppcf.org)
36 [emergency relief fund](http://www.ppcf.org/products/emergency-relief)
37 that specifically benefits victims of this fire.
39 If you'd rather send money to help us rebuild, PayPal transfers to
40 bdale@gag.com may be the easiest way to do that.
42 We are also deeply indebted to the three local fire departments that we know
43 were directly fighting the fire on and around our property:
45 * <a href="http://www.bffire.org">Black Forest Fire/Rescue</a>, the
46 department that serves us directly and were likely first on the
48 * <a href="http://www.wescottfire.org">Wescott Fire Protection District</a>,
49 an adjacent district whose personnel were fighting the fire literally
50 along the edges of our driveway when we tried to drive out, and who
51 ended up walking us out through the already-burned area to safety.
52 * <a href="http://www.falconfirepd.org">Falcon Fire Protection District</a>,
53 whose members showed us immense generosity in the days following the
58 * 2014 October 3<br>Finished cleaning up the apartment and associated garages,
59 and turned in those keys.
60 * 2014 September 27<br>Began to move out of the apartment and in to our new
62 * 2014 September 25<br>Our builder passed his final inspection with regional
63 building! A list of final (mostly cosmetic) details to finish up,
65 * 2014 July 31<br>Hardwood floors are in, tile floors are in process, finish
66 electrical has started, trim material in the process of being stained.
67 * 2014 June 10<br>Rough-in inspections for plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and
68 so forth all completed... on to insulation!
69 * 2014.May 8<br>Exterior doors and windows in, roofing begun,
71 * 2014.April 26<br>Concrete slabs for basement and garage floor poured.
72 * 2014 April 9<br>Roof trusses installed.
73 * 2014 March 25<br>Framing started.
74 * 2014 March 14<br>Concrete poured for the foundation / basement walls.
75 * 2014 March 3<br>Concrete poured for the foundation footers.
76 * 2014 February 26<br>Ground broken! Excavation underway...
77 * 2014 February 19<br>Building permits issued!
78 * 2014 February 7<br>While visiting the site for other reasons, Bdale observed
79 that [Mountain View Electric](www.mvea.coop) has installed a new
80 transformer, riser, and meter base on the last electric pole on our
82 * 2014 January 22<br>After some iteration between the architect and engineers,
83 we now have a complete working plan set with engineering stamps on
84 the way to Regional for issuance of building permits.
85 * 2013 December 16<br>Got our "last" set of questions answered by our
86 contractor, and signed the contract for constuction of our new house.
87 * 2013 December 10<br>Met with contractor to review cost estimates for our
88 revised plan. We're within budget now, so gave him the go-ahead to
90 * 2013 November 25<br>Met with contractor and architect to deliver our
91 proposed updates to the plan and discuss. We're actually happier
92 with the revised design, they both seem to like what we proposed,
93 and everyone is optimistic it will come in within budget.
94 * 2013 November 18<br>Met with our contractor to discuss costs. Not too
95 surprisingly in hindsight, what we designed would cost more to build
96 than we are prepared to spend. Back to the drawing board, literally!
97 * 2013 November 2<br>Met with our contractor to provide information he needs
98 to put cost estimates together for us in parallel with waiting for
99 structural engineering work to be completed.
100 * 2013 October 21<br>After several iterations, we now have floor plans and
101 elevations that accurately represent what we'd like to build.
102 * 2013 September 19<br>First draft of main floor plan received from the
103 architect we're working with.
104 * 2013 August 16<br>Demoliton work completed. The remains of our house, shed,
105 and greenhouse are now gone.
106 * 2013 July 26<br>The remains of the two cars that burned were removed from
107 our property and sold as scrap metal.
108 * 2013 July 21<br>After a week spent interviewing contractors who might help us
109 build a new house, we made a decision! We'll be working with Doug
110 Strecker, dba <a href="http://www.rampartcustomhomes.com/">Rampart
111 Custom Homes</a>. At his suggestion, we'll be using David Woody as
112 the architect tasked with turning our sketches into working plans.
113 * 2013 July 4<br>all web sites formerly hosted returned to normal
114 * 2013 July 3<br>gag.com web presence returns to normal
115 * 2013 June 28<br>gag.com mail service returns to normal
116 * 2013 June 20<br>Intenet service connected in the apartment
117 * 2013 June 18<br>First night sleeping in the apartment
118 * 2013 June 17<br>Started populating the apartment, almost entirely with
119 donated things. Initial registry links posted for things we could
120 use immediately to re-establish ourselves in the apartment
121 * 2013 June 15<br>Signed lease on 2-bedroom apartment in Colorado Springs.
122 * 2013 June 11<br>House destroyed by forest fire
124 <center><IMG SRC="bfs.png" width="300" height="300"></center>
126 We're not sure who created the original artwork, but thanks to Eric and the
128 [Black Forest Automotive](http://blackforestauto.com)
129 for the cool bfs.png!