Woman reconnects with fire lieutenant who saved her house in Marshall Fire
It was hard not to watch the Marshall Fire on Dec. 30, 2021, and wonder if any homes would survive. The wind was so strong and conditions so dry that the fire seemed unstoppable.
There are so many stories of loss and despair from what happened a little over a year ago -- more than 1,000 homes were destroyed in Boulder County -- but there are also stories about hope and survival.
"You walk around and everything looks like a nuclear bomb hit it," said Anouk Ziiflma, walking a street devastated by the Marshall Fire.
"For about 12 hours, we thought our house was gone," she said.
Her house was one of those that was narrowly spared by the wildfire.
She and her family were out of town when the fire started.
This is what her neighborhood looked like when Fire Lt. Courtney Van Marter arrived.
Van Marter, who works for the Westminster Fire Department, was one of the many firefighters who came from outside Boulder County to help and decided to make a stand, pulling out all the stops to save Ziiflma's home.
"Applying thousands of gallons of water and foam to sort of create a blanket of security," Van Marten said. "[I was] hoping- hoping and praying to God we could save [the home]."
Her prayers were answered.
Ziiflma and Van Marter first met a week after the fire, when Van Marter returned to the house.
She had to know, "is the one house we did get to protect -- is it still standing?"
"I said, 'I saved your house,' and she threw arms around me and I threw arms around her and just started crying," the fire lieutenant recalled.
"It's a miracle our house is still there," Ziiflma said. "[It was] like something magical, but it wasn't, it was Courtney and all firefighters, really, that saved it."
Fire crews protected four other houses on that block.
Still, it's been hard to recover and move forward, even one year later.
"This is a year on, almost, and things are still not back to normal," Ziiflma said. "People are not doing well. I quit my job. Everyone says, 'I've never been in therapy, I'm in therapy.' It's not easy at all, but it's certainly gratifying to be back and being able to help."
Her house now a base of operations for neighbors rebuilding.
"We have coffee, we have electricity, we have WiFi, so it's kind of an open house for anyone coming, meeting with builders and anyone else," she said. "We're so glad to be back here, even though loud, it's great. It's progress."
Ziiflma takes none of it for granted: "There's something truly special about being here. And the hosue was saved as well, so I have to stay. How lucky can you get?"
