Experience of the Aftermath

L.A. Wild Fire Series

Here you’ll find:

A letter passed through a chain of friends of a personal account of a devastating wildfire & step-by-step actions to consider afterwards. An Index follows of past articles with further resources in Los Angeles.

My daughter’s home in Colorado very very nearly burned up 3 years ago, and ditto for her rental property. Here is her detailed account of that experience and its aftermath. It is especially interesting to read about how she dealt with smoke damage. Some of you will also have to deal with smoke damage.

   Feel free to send this to anyone who might benefit from it.

Best.

In the Wake of the Marshall Fire, Superior, Colorado

Here’s my Marshall Fire experience description.

I live in the town of Superior, Colorado which experienced the Marshall Fire in December 2021 when the ground was frozen. Superior is just outside of Boulder, Colorado.

It was an extremely rapid-onset fire that burned at excessively high temperatures which incinerated pretty much everything in its path and was fueled by sudden 145 mph winds that came out of the blue.

The fire destroyed 1100+ homes in a town with a population of about 13,000. Even our Mayor lost his home. So a large percentage of people lost their homes (around 25%), plus some businesses, but 100% of the residents and businesses experienced excessive smoke damage as well emotionally very trying times both during and after the fire.

The fire destroyed parts of both Superior and Louisville Colorado as well as burning through much of the Open Space between Superior and Boulder. It also hopped over the highway and destroyed more homes and businesses. My eldest son now works doing physical performance evaluations for local fire firefighters across the state, and that work takes on very personal meaning for him.

I was out of state at the time of the fire, which in a positive way ensured my safety but in a negative way in that I felt completely helpless trying to figure out what was going on and what was actually happening.

My family watched the view from our doorbell camera online, which was great until we saw the fire coming up to the fence across the street and then we lost power and had to wonder.

Long story short, our entire town was evacuated very rapidly (warned to immediately get out) and brave police officers went door to door trying to tell people to get out. There was no time to prepare, just go. People who were not home at the time of the fire were not able to go home before the evacuation was ordered. My street was evacuated, and everyone left except for 1 couple who decided to stay for reasons they still haven’t discussed.

The fire was burning to the north, west, and east of our street. The flames came about 50 yards away from my home, and up to the exterior wall of my rental home which is located about 1/4 mile away. At the rental house, which is a townhouse attached to a row of other town-homes, most of the area was completely destroyed. Much has now been rebuilt.

Realizing the Impact

We were allowed to return to our homes 10 days after the fire completed its destruction, and I had been in contact with many friends and neighbors.

When I returned, by car, I entered a roadblock checkpoint where police were checking IDs. Only residents were allowed into the town. There is a very robust police force in Boulder County (they always have more on hand than are needed), and there were plenty of personnel stationed at roadblocks around both Superior and Louisville.

I appreciated this tactic very much, as they only allowed homeowners in and it helped us all feel safer, plus was a great way to turn back any potential hooligans looking to loot or just drive around and take pictures of the destruction.

When I got past the roadblock, I wasn’t prepared for how emotionally impactful what I saw would be. My jaw hit the floor and my heart just sank. Huge areas were wiped out completely, everything gray ash and flattened or sunk into the ground or basements. I knew my house was still standing, as the neighbors who had stayed had photographed everyone’s homes on our street and texted it to everyone.

After driving past old town Superior which was completely destroyed, seeing all the fields jet black in color and trees black and fallen, grass all black, etc I got to my street and was so grateful my house was still there. All the houses on my street made it (20 total). I felt extremely grateful my house made it, but at the same time I felt the beginning of feeling an element of survivor’s guilt. Maybe it’s more like house survival guilt. Turns out pretty much everyone whose house made it through the fire felt some level of survivors guilt.

Emotions Tied to Us

There are a lot of emotions that accompany experiencing a devastating fire like this, for the entire community:

We all went through it and all came out the other side. And yes, I think we all experience some elements of PTSD of varying degrees now. I definitely felt and still do feel some strong emotions with the fire and my father’s close proximity to it.

Steps to Restore Your Home – Insurance Claims

When I did return home after the fire, I was met with singed bushes and trees, and a house covered in ash outside as well as inside in some areas. The house is 30 years old. There is a lot of smoke remediation that needed to be done, and everyone in Superior/Louisville needed to do this remediation all at the exact same time. So as you can imagine the demand for certain services was very high! Luckily, crews came in from nearby states to help. Some were focused only on cleanup, others were focused only on certain aspects of smoke remediation like insulation in particular. One person can’t possibly do it all, so specialists were hired for each area.

The first thing to do to take care of the smoke damage is to call the insurance company and start that claim. Even if nothing technically burned, you have smoke damage from a disaster. You will receive a claim #, and later you will receive a designated disaster number which will be used on your tax forms next year.

Next is to take photos and videos of EVERYTHING – inside and outside the house. The photos and videos are very important, whether you have a complete loss, partial loss, or loss due to smoke damage.

My insurance company, Progressive, was fantastic. They paired me with 1 representative who handled everything quickly and smoothly. Once he came to walk around the house and take some pictures himself, we were on the fast track to get reimbursed for expenses. The insurance company compensated me for everything except windows that needed to be replaced. The claim was open for 1 year, and every time I found something that was ruined or damaged, I took a picture of it and texted it to my guy with an approximate price and he reimbursed me right away. I did find more things after the 1 year mark that should have been covered, but the claim can only be “open” so long.

Nothing actually physically burned at my house, but some things were damaged and replaced.

HVAC System

The first thing to do is to get the attic insulation completely replaced.

Air circulating through the house comes in contact with the insulation and this can keep contaminating the house over and over again with ash.

After insulation replacement and attic space inspection when they are crawling around in there (and sealing up any open leaks to the outside), you need to have the air ducts cleaned. We used MonsterVac, which blew out and sanitized the entire duct system.

Then the furnace and air conditioning units need to be cleaned professionally. Ash is an extremely small particle, so getting the house’s air circulation items cleaned professionally is key. If it isn’t taken care of properly, your house gets more and more ash coming inside over and over again.

Clean Everything

After these are taken care of, we’re off to the races cleaning literally everything:

• Replace attic insulation
• Air duct cleaning and sanitizing
• Furnace inspection and cleaning
• AC unit inspection and cleaning. Keep hosing down the AC unit yourself every week after the professional cleaning.
• Exterior power wash of home, including windows and roof
• Interior cleaning of ceilings, walls, floors, and baseboards (many people do this with a Swiffer on an extended pole)
• Interior cleaning of overhead light recessed cans – many of these are open in the ceiling
• Interior cleaning of literally every item – there are companies that will do this for around $20,000! — (We did it all ourselves.)
• Replace carpet, if needed
• Exterior power wash of driveway and all hard surfaces
• Repeated watering of grass to force ash deep into soil

Wash down all bushes, plants, flowers, trees at your home. Add fresh soil on top of all existing to force the ash deeper into the soil. Some plants/trees will be fine, some will die a slow death over the next few years.

Pool and jacuzzi inspection and cleaning – probable replacement of major parts and filters.

Run Molecule/HEPA type filters in every room of the house. Not just now but it’s a good practice after remediation too. These are not equipped to filter out ash after a big fire, but will keep the air cleaner. You must get rid of the ash, then run the filters. Otherwise you just circulate the ash around.

Wash all clothes, towels, and bedding.

If there is any ash in the bedrooms, you will need to buy new mattresses too. And probably all new bedding and pillows as well.

If you have an electronic lock on the outside of your home, chances are good you will need to replace it because the heat and ash can destroy the internal working mechanisms. Wind will force ash into places that most dust particles can’t go, because they are smaller.

Windows – this is a big one! : My home had 1/2 newer windows (10 years old) and 1/2 older windows (30 years). The strong winds ruined all the older windows’ seals and settings and let ash in at those areas of the house. (I couldn’t “prove” it was the winds associated with the fires so insurance didn’t cover it. I replaced all those windows out of pocket.) Watch your windows very closely! Get all the ash out of the windowsills for starters, then later when the ash gets kicked up you will see it again and again. Just make sure the ash isn’t coming into the house. Make sure to replace every window that isn’t perfect.

Then there’s the cars. They need to be very thoroughly washed inside and out, including under the hood and underside. The ash gets in the ventilation system and all over the engine. I you don’t clean the car thoroughly, when you get in to drive and turn on either the heater or the AC, you will get blasted with ash.

Hose down and clean everything in the garage – bikes, stored items, tools, flooring, etc.

Yes, smoke remediation is a lot of work!

As cleanup of burned areas begin (and new construction begins), ash is knocked up and into the air each and every time, it is carried great distances. So once your home is cleaned up and airtight, you will be ok but expect to see ash again in the window sills and on sidewalks and on shoes and dogs’ feet, etc. You will see ash for about 2 years. Wipe it up with a wet paper towel whenever you see it on any window or seam.

Claiming Insurance Expenses

Another expense you can claim for insurance/taxes is the cost of housing during the time of the fire. They allow you a per day charge, so keep receipts for hotels/travel expenses/food during the time you are displaced. This begins the first night of the fire. Bottled water should be included.

You can also “pay yourself” and make insurance claims (at least in Colorado you can) for hours you spend taking care of smoke damage/partial losses. The rate for CO was 150% minimum wage. Not sure if CA does this.

On Water

Also make sure to test and retest the tap water in your home. The metrics can change repeatedly. Home water filtration units are not adequate to counteract toxic chemicals that can appear in the tap water supply due to burned down buildings.

Structure fires are far more toxic than wildfires, because of burning PVC, plastics, asbestos, paint, etc. not to mention fire retardant if it was used anywhere near the water supply.

The city has to change its water filtration and decontamination applications after a major fire, and this takes time. So make sure to store up some tap water (probably from another location far from your home in another water district) for general use, and stock up a very high supply of bottled store-bought water that was bottled in a location far away from the disaster area. This can be determined by reading the label carefully.

It’s a good idea in general to keep about 20 gallons of stored tap water and 10 gallons of bottled drinking water per person, at your home.

Be a Good Neighbor

Everyone in the neighborhood will be doing the same things at the same time – now – so communicate with each other and what people are finding in their homes and how it’s going for everyone. Help each other out with referrals and the better companies to use.

For us, finding great people to replace attic insulation was very key and the first thing that needed to be done. I was one of the first on the block to do it and the company was fantastic. They did my house as well as my rental house (where the flames came right up to the side of the building and had melted the AC unit, landscape irrigation pipes, melted the trim around the windows, etc). I told all my neighbors about the insulation company and they ended up doing about half the houses on my block.

Afterwards

A few months after the fire, and after most of the remediation was done, there are still lasting changes that will take place within your community. For ours, some homes have been rebuilt already. Some people want to rebuild, some want to leave and never think about it again. Some don’t want to rebuild and live somewhere else nearby. Some still have Christmas lights on what remains of their homes afterwards, some left a chair and a sign that says “Home Sweet Home”.

One common theme the residents have now is an awareness of natural disaster threats. And we all have changed our approach and planning for natural disasters. We don’t live in fear, but we are ready and sensible about the realities.

Be Prepared

One thing most of us do now is that we have supplies on hand stashed away in our basements.

This includes:

• a solid supply of food
• lots of stored tap water
• lots of drinking water
• paper goods
• lots of extra food; foods you can make with water (drinks, soups, meals, oatmeal, etc)..

• backup power (portable solar, generator, etc)
• camping lights
• batteries
• heaters
• hot plates

Having these supplies on hand (better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it) for yourself and for your neighbors is the right thing to do. The one couple on our street that chose to stay during the fire and evacuation (I still can’t believe it) used our supplies of water, food, and power. For 10 days they were at their house before the street was opened back up to residents. They could not exit because everything was blocked off before they eventually set up the checkpoints.

All the stores were closed and of course they couldn’t get any food, and they knew better than to touch the tap water. We had texted with each other and I had supplies in my basement and they did indeed walk over to my house and get our food and water and heaters and generator. I was very happy I could help them!

One more thing that would be wise is to get a supply of medications/ prescriptions/ first aid supplies at home for emergencies, or extended emergencies; both for yourself and for others.

Keep a detailed and deep supply of first aid items of all kinds, as well as backup supplies of prescriptions and medications. You can also get prescription medication of various kinds through companies which we have done. We have pouches of prescriptions (for common medical needs) at our home for all family members. Again, this is not just for yourself but for others in your area in time of emergency like a fire.

Besides preparedness, another thing that has changed here is that people bring their dogs everywhere. When the fire happened, many pets were home alone and perished in the fire. Which is absolutely terrible. Now, people bring their pets with them everywhere and often. And, local businesses are more pet-friendly than ever. We all get it. Superior has always been dog-friendly but now it is even more so and has built more dog parks and amenities.

I hope some of this information helps. It can be really overwhelming dealing with the range of emotions post-fire at the same time as trying to get all the smoke remediation done so you can live in your house again.

In Colorado… [But Check if Your Local Area Will, Too]

Also, the IRS will extend the deadline to file taxes for anyone located in the affected zip codes. You will receive a disaster declaration number which you will then include on your tax forms. We had until October to file. Also, not sure about California but Colorado sent us all checks (about $5000) in the mail about 3 months after the disaster. This was pure generosity on Colorado’s part, and no taxes were owed on this. They were just being nice to us.

Not have outsiders swoop in and throw money at what remained of our homes. Receiving offers from people unfamiliar with our area and the pride and love we have for it was very insulting, like they were trying to capitalize on us during our time of loss and weakness. The same applies for help services that suddenly appeared, again trying to capitalize on our losses. Also, the town of Superior decreased everyone’s property values greatly that year, so that we would all pay fewer taxes. We all appreciated that. Now only 3 years later, the home values are higher than ever.

Final Thoughts

I hope some of this information helps, and I understand how overwhelming it can be. A long list of things to do, new territory to navigate, trying got find the right resources to adequately take care of things, emotional navigation, helping your street/friends/family/community, etc. It is a slow but necessary process, and everyone is going through the same thing at the same time, in varying degrees.

Be informed, be patient with yourself, and take it one step at a time.

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Index for L.A. Wild Fire Series

West Palisades Fire Jan 7, 2025 – Reiki offering (on-going thru Feb 15, 2025) & ideas to help calm nervous system.

Observers of Ferocious Hand of Fire – Resources during Fire Updates

Resources for Recovering – links to information for housing, protection, community, financial aid & relief, home air cleaners & solar generators

Inventory in the Aftermath – encouragement to find space to feel & recover