“Grab your valuables and run! We may never see our homes again!” my neighbor Beth had said when the Lake Christine Fire erupted just a few miles from our homes back in July 2018, her eyes wild with panic.

A wildfire caused by two kids shooting flares at the local firing range came dangerously close to our homes up the Frying Pan, ash raining down on our driveways leaving a coat of soot on our windshields. It was our first experience with a natural disaster, and we had no idea what to expect. As the fire grew and the cloud of smoke rose above Basalt Mountain like the mouth of an active volcano, our imaginations ran as wild as the fire itself. In a panic, we pulled all our artwork off the walls, grabbed old photo albums and threw it all in the back of Ryan’s truck, leaving the house so rans

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