Evacuees thankful their homes were saved

More than a hundred families from Mountain Shadows were able to return Thursday, and some saw for the first time just how close they came to losing their home.

Justin Ramsey, 17, and his family were on vacation when the Waldo Canyon fire swept through their neighborhood, and they came back to Rossmere Street to find charred land surrounding their house.

“It’s hard to explain (how I feel) because I don’t really think there’s words that can really capture all the emotions that go into seeing something like this,” said Ramsey.

The flames came within a few feet of his home in some areas, but even his mom’s garden was still intact, right next to the burned area.

“It makes me think how well our firefighters did, just being able to hold that line,” Ramsey said. “It just kind of blows my mind.”

Across the street there was another home without damage even though the flames approached and burned the fence. The kids who live there used the ash from that fence to write a message in their driveway to firefighters: “God bless our heroes. You saved our homes.”

“We wanted to just say that we’re thankful because we wouldn’t have a house to live in if they hadn’t done this for us,” said Alex Brown. “They’re just so brave and they give everything they can for us. We’re just so happy to have them.”