Monica LaSalle, Gilpin County.   The night is crisp and cool with a fine layer of snow on the ground for an otherwise dry Christmas. Multi-colored lights and decorations illuminate the night as people wind up their celebrations for the evening and settle down to enjoy the afterglow of the holiday. Out of the blue, sirens pierce the air. The peace of the holiday is disturbed, fire fighters are pulled from their cozy revelries with their families to respond to a dreaded call on such a night – a structure fire in a populated neighborhood in Gilpin County.

Dory Lakes is quite full of homes, families and friends all settled in with otherwise majestic mountain holiday cheer. As I drive along the highway past Taggerts, I look east and amongst the glow of the holiday lights, I see a different glow accompanied by a plume of smoke. Structure fire: two words no one ever wants to hear, especially on Christmas night.

I pull into the neighborhood and immediately encounter cars slowly circulating the roadways trying to get a closer look at the fire erupting from a home on South Dory Lakes Drive. Timberline Fire is the first to respond on scene, yet the scanner reveals that several other fire departments are called to respond to the fire in the crowded neighborhood. With houses only a few hundred yards away from each other, Timberline Fire is not messing around.

Carefully staying out of the way, I witness trucks from Central City, Golden Gate, Coal Creek and Nederland Fire Departments all arriving to assist in putting down the blaze. Great plumes of water are aimed at the house, with hoses stretching from tank trucks as fire fighters hustle toward the scene.

The atmosphere is both apocalyptic and calm, with residents from the neighborhood watching from afar, the lights of the blaze and the trucks reflecting on grim and worried expressions.

The call came in at 7:57 p.m. By 8:47 p.m., the structure fire was deemed “controlled” despite having other calls coming in simultaneously, threatening to pull the responders away from this dire situation. A call to the area of South Beaver and Hwy 119 at 9:17 p.m. and a fire alarm call to the 2nd floor of Johnny Z’s casino.

While the call to Johnny Z’s was due to fumes from cleaning a kitchen vent and a false alarm, the call to South Beaver and Hwy 119 was a more serious medical call that required immediate response. Yet the responders were able to attend to all the calls within minutes in what seemed to the average civilian a miraculous juggling act of superhero proportions.

The fire was contained and did not spread throughout the neighborhood as could always potentially happen during another especially dry winter season.

In the aftermath of the fire, responders had the unfortunate experience of discovering a body amongst the ruins of the home. A young man by the name of Noah Benjamin Lindberg, the son of the property owner, had been living at the residence at the time of the fire. He perished from smoke inhalation. An unfortunate set of circumstance that will undoubtedly linger in people’s hearts for a long time to come; both responders, family and friends.

Authorities are still waiting on the reports from the state fire investigators; at this time the cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

(Originally published in the January 10, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)