Week of
July 12, 2000
Inside the Register
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Faith, hope and charity warm mountain community
By Roxanne King
Humility, gratitude and faith, those are the qualities that shine through Marilyn Birr as she revisits the site where her mountain home of 23 years burned down in the recent Hi Meadow wildfire that ravaged more than 10,000 acres.
"I cried a little bit, then I said, `Let's see what's left to save,'" the massage therapist said recalling her first visit to the 7-acre site near Conifer where her $200,000 frame home once stood.
That there wasn't much left was clear to the Register during a visit June 29.
The fire that blackened the once green mountain top had reduced her home to a pile of rubble. Broken, smoky bits of china, a cast iron skillet and a porcelain pot lay next to the washing machine purchased just two weeks before the disaster.
During her first visit, Birr salvaged a clay pot made by her daughter's friend when they were teens. On this visit, she found a key to her car.
Birr never saw the fire that began Monday, June 12, and destroyed her home within the first two days. With her four children grown, the long-divorced Birr shared her home with a cat and dog.
During a Monday afternoon trip to the grocery store, Birr overhead talk about a fire in Berlund, a town she felt was a safe distance away. But when she arrived home she was met at her mailbox by neighbors who told her she had to evacuate because a fire was threatening the area. Up the road a bit, police told her the same. Telling them she had to get her pets, Birr went inside and, thinking she would be back the next day, she quickly put her groceries away. She also took time to listen to messages on the answering machine. There was one from a neighbor who, hearing about the fire at work, had called asking Birr to help his mother and his two dogs evacuate his home, which was further up the mountain.
Birr grabbed four framed photos of her late parents, including two of their wedding, loaded up her pets and left to help the neighbor's mother. After the group was safely out of danger, Birr spent the night at her son's home in a neighboring town.
She learned the next day that her property had burned. That it was completely destroyed was confirmed the following day.
Gone were the photos of her children growing up. Gone were her mother's letters. Gone were mementos from Alaska and Hawaii. Gone were her three pictures of the Blessed Mother, including one that her mother had brought when she emigrated from Poland. Gone was the Bible Birr got in the eighth grade.
Her eyes fill with tears as she recalls her losses. But she quickly wipes them away.
"God gives me strength," she said. "I know a lot of people who are angry, I'm not angry. This is all part of the ecosystem. This is nature, this is the way it evolves.
"This is a lesson for everybody to not put too much emphasis on material things — they can be taken away in a breath, in a poof of smoke," she continued. Counting her blessings, she added, "I have my animals and so many friends."
The fire, which is suspected to have been human caused, revealed to Birr the depth of her faith and taught her about humility.
"I pray a lot," she said, adding that nearly daily she asks the intercession of the Blessed Mother. "My faith is not only renewed, it's there within me, it's part of me."
Highly independent, Birr originally told Father Reuben Payo, pastor of Our Lady of the Pines Church, that she did not need help when he first offered it. But she got it anyway and was deeply touched.
"Father Payo is my hero," she said of the pastor. "He's been incredible. He's full of compassion."
Recalling the first time she attended Mass after the fire, Birr said that during the sermon, Father Payo talked about "independent, self sufficient" people who wouldn't let others help them. Birr broke down and wept.
"I need courage, I need strength," she told a concerned parishioner who comforted and prayed with her. After Mass she told Father Payo, "I'm going to try very hard to humble myself to accept kindness."
Within days, Birr received a check from the tithing parish. Friends called to say they would help her to clear her land of burned trees. Others have offered to make reprints of photos they have featuring her children. A lawyer offered his services pro bono.
"All this goodness is coming to me from all over," Birr said, marveling at the kindness.
The tragedy has changed her.
After Mass recently, when Father Payo asked Birr how she was doing, she again said "Fine." But this time, when he asked if she needed anything, she quickly responded, "Yes, I need people to help get my property cleared."
"We have a list of people to help," the pastor said.
Hopeful that insurance will cover most of her damages, Birr plans to rebuild.
"This time I'm going to build an adobe," she said, adding that when it is built, she plans to throw a party.
"Life goes on," she said. "I'm not the only one in the world that's had destruction."
With awe she noted that in the midst of the tragedy was a miracle.
"Ten thousand acres burned and not one life was lost,"she said. "This was inevitable. This is part of God's plan."
At the parish, Father Payo, assisted by volunteer firefighter Dan Imming, serving as an acolyte, has finished celebrating daily Mass for two dozen faithful.
"These are very resilient people," Father Payo said about the community, noting that they survived both the recent fire and one four years ago in Buffalo Creek, where the parish runs St. Elizabeth's mission church.
Including Birr, three families from the two churches lost their homes in the Hi Meadow fire.
"It was astounding, the response," Father Payo said. "There was a lot of help, a lot of people pitching in. When something happens, they all just pull together."
In addition to providing financial and spiritual support, the parish collaborated with the American Red Cross and served as a collection point for clothing. Parish outreach continues as people rebuild, re-landscape and replace what was lost, Father Payo said.
"It was very sad to see all the destruction and people displaced," Imming said, adding that his own family had to leave their home for a few days.
Firefighters often fought the blazes for up to 16 hours at a time. Despite their tireless efforts, sometimes they were left helplessly watching as flames consumed homes impossible to save.
"There was a tremendous amount of pride among the firefighters for being able to save the number of homes and property they did save," Imming said.
Although hundreds of homes were threatened, a total of 73 structures were lost in the combined Hi Meadow and Bobcat wildfires that raged during the same week, burning more than 21,000 acres before rain and cooler temperatures helped firefighters quell them.
Father Payo and Imming believe the weather change was providential.
"The cold front came earlier than expected," Father Payo said. "That was God's hand."
"I think everyone said a prayer," Imming said. "You just wish you could have done more."
That community gratitude for the firefighters runs deep is expressed via numerous "Thank you" signs now dotting the landscape.
Impressed with the strength of those who lost their homes, Father Payo said: "They have a lot of faith. They'll bounce back."
Back at her property, Birr surveys the damage.
"I'm going to stay here," she said. "I'm going to look at my mountain and it's going to be green. I will survive.