When a fire threatens homes and livelihoods in Teller County, the character and personality of a place rises to the top. And so it was the evening of Oct. 28 at the evacuation center at the Woodland Park Community Church.
The fire started in the Highland Lakes area of Divide and by 4:20 p.m., residents of several subdivisions were ordered to evacuate.
The church is a designated American Red Cross shelter. “We don’t get many people in these shelters,” said Paul Thies, a volunteer with the Red Cross. “People in Teller County open their doors to their neighbors.
” Anita and Eric Riggle, who live in Spring Valley neighborhood, were packed and ready to go if their pre-evacuation orders changed to get-out-now orders. “We had five offers from friends to come over, which is so sweet,” Anita Riggle said, adding that they also had two other offers from family. Thies was playing a double role, being both an evacuee and volunteer.
“When I got the notice from Peak Alerts to evacuate, I threw my dogs in the car and left,” he said. “I could see smoke from (County Road) 51.” It happened that his wife, Joanne Thies, was in Colorado Springs at the time.
The two met up in a parking lot where she took the dogs and drove to a friend’s house to stay overnight. He, on the other hand, responded to a call from the county’s emergency operations center, directing him to go to the church. One of 12 Red Cross shelters in Teller County, the shelter location for an incident is dete.