Little Bear Fire

A couple weeks after church camp, a wild fire started in Ruidoso.  Within a few days, it had spread to over 44,000 acres and burned 254 structures.  We were watching the news, on the progress of the fire, with Henry's parents, who were visiting for Ryan's birthday.  Henry's mom said, "I wonder if mom (who lives in El Paso, but has a cabin in Ruidoso) knows about this fire".  She decided to call her right away and ask.  As soon as she said "Hi mom, did you know there is a fire in Ruidoso?" we quickly heard her say "Oh shit, I'm so sorry mom."  A neighbor of Grandmama's in Ruidoso had just called her and informed her that her cabin had burned to the ground.

We soon found out that the fire, which is called The Little Bear Fire, had also burned many homes around church camp and the gymnasium.  The bathhouse was also destroyed.  This was so difficult to hear partly because we were just there.  We had just climbed the rock walls in that gymnasium.  And now it was gone.

A couple weeks after hearing that news, Henry and I and the kids, met Henry's brother (and his family), Henry's parents, Grandmama (owner of the cabin) and Aunt Irene in Ruidoso.  We went to sift through the rubble and see if there was anything salvageable.

A side view of what was left of the trailer.

The cinder blocks are where the porch, that Grandpapa had built, was.

This is a solidified stream of melted metal that occurred during the fire.

Grandmama holding up a coffee cup we found in the rubble.

A good bye picture of Eileen, Aunt Irene, Grandmama and Saul.

The cabin is where my in-laws, Eileen and Saul, began.  Even though they were both from El Paso, the met each other when he was 16 and she was 15, in Ruidoso.  Grandpapa had built the cabin as a summer getaway for him and his family.  Every summer, Grandmama and Grandpapa would head from El Paso to Ruidoso.  They took the kids there, then their grandkids and Grandmama even took her great grandkids to the cabin.  Lot of memories there.

I had never seen the destruction of a wild fire.  I was surprised to see that the fire would obliterate one house and not touch another house that was 20 feet away.  It all seemed so random.  But as Grandmama said, "thank God no one was hurt".  Amen.