God is working in hearts and lives after Colorado's most destructive wildfire.
Joe DiIorio stood in the doorway paralyzed with disbelief at the police officer’s words. They needed to leave—immediately—the officer told them. A wildfire was moving toward the suburbs of Boulder County, Colorado, and quickening with high-speed winds—100 mile per hour winds sweeping through the Front Range.
More than 1,000 homes were destroyed by wildfire in late December.
Joe tried to be hopeful that this would be nothing more than a minor inconvenience and that he and his family would return home in no time. His wife, Heather, though, was unable to shake an ominous feeling—that their lives were about to change forever. She woke their two-year-old granddaughter from her nap so she’d be ready to leave quickly.
“My mind was just clear. I was in fight or flight,” she recounted.
Heather sorted through clothes, some valuables, and other items, hastily stuffing what seemed most important into small trash bags. Everything she did in those last moments at the house felt like a final decision. She looked around one last time.
From the car, where they had packed everything that would be left from their cherished home of 35 years, they watched the smoke grow more visible in the distance. The DiIorios drove away— unaware that their frantic departure would be the final ‘goodbye.’
Responding with Compassion
Since early January, Samaritan’s Purse has been hard at work in Boulder County, Colorado, sifting through the ashes of homes that were destroyed in the recent Marshall Fire. It was widely considered the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history.
Samaritan’s Purse volunteers have been on the ground working diligently to recovery any precious artifacts not claimed in the blaze.
It started as a small blaze, but quickly combined with violent winds and thousands of dry pastures to scorch more than 6,000 acres of populated land. It burned over 1,000 homes to the ground—leaving families displaced and vulnerable as winter moved in.
Samaritan’s Purse volunteers have been on the ground from the beginning, joyfully working through snow, wind, and ice, so that these communities will know that God has not forgotten them during their time of need.
To date, more than 800 volunteers have served over 180 homeowners, helping these hurting families recover any valuables not claimed in the blaze. Our work in Boulder County has provided many opportunities to share the hope and peace found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. We praise God that more than two dozen residents have prayed to receive Christ as Lord and Savior.
Facing the Graveyard of Your Life
Almost nothing was left of the DiIorios’ home and the same was true for the neighborhood. When they returned to see the footprint of the house outlined in ash and debris, Joe said that he first felt numb and then he experienced deep sadness.
Many communities and thousands of populated acres were devastated by the blaze.
“Every night since the fire I lie in bed imagining I’m in one of the rooms,” Joe said. “Thinking through the little things that would have been in there. Spare keys to the house. Trinkets. Little things.”
Heather tearfully shared sobering words as she approached the charred remains of their home. “We’re standing in the place where we raised our children,” she said. “It’s like we’re looking at the graveyard of our lives—of everything that we made together.”
Our volunteers in hazmat suits, masks, and goggles, began to sift through the ash, careful to inspect anything that caught their eye.
The DiIorios joined them, pointing to where they thought certain valuables might have ended up. That’s when Heather decided to mention the beloved coin that she had just assumed was gone forever. It was given to her mother in the 1960s after attending a private audience with the pope.
The coin was later passed down to Heather as a cherished family heirloom. She’d thought about it since the day they evacuated and was grieving that she’d let it slip her mind in the evacuation.
“If I had thought to take things like that, that’s the one valuable I would have taken—that token coin,” she said.
Though charred and stained an ashen hue, volunteers recovered a small precious coin passed down through generations.
Finding such a small item in the ash seemed impossible, even as items began to emerge—trinkets, memorabilia, items they’d forgotten they still owned, and plenty of keepsakes representing precious memories. But still no coin.
Then there came a sudden enthusiastic cry. An ecstatic volunteer held up a small item covered in the same ash grey that blanketed his glove and suit. He dusted it off and passed it to Heather. She began to cry.
“From the beginning, that’s the one thing that I wanted,” Heather said through tears. “With the rubble, I thought it was a needle in a haystack.”
Joe pulled Heather close: “That’s what you guys do,” he said. “You find needles in haystacks.”
The DiIorios said the painstaking work of God’s people helped remind them of His faithfulness and of the true hope they have in Him.
Faith Tougher Than Flames
“This certainly is a test of our faith, but I don’t know what we would do without our faith,” Heather said. “In all of this there is still a sense of peace.”
She added: “And Samaritan’s Purse volunteers are just amazing.”
We thank God for how He has used Samaritan’s Purse volunteers to bring comfort to families whose homes were destroyed by the Marshall Fire in Colorado.
While so much has been lost, God is still at work, inviting hurting homeowners to embrace what can’t be lost–the peace which surpasses all understanding given freely through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Please pray for the many families still picking up the pieces of their lives in Boulder County. Pray also for our volunteers and Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains as they serve homeowners in Jesus’ Name.
For more on how you can become involved in our disaster relief work in Colorado and elsewhere, visit SPVOLUNTEER.ORG.
Watch this video to see our volunteers in action in Colorado!
