'Oh my god, we got to get out of here': Distraught woman films her escape from Colorado wildfire which claimed her home of 18 years (2024)

By Snejana Farberov

Published: 22:09 EDT, 30 June 2012 | Updated: 08:42 EDT, 1 July 2012

When Nicole Frye, of Colorado Springs, realized that her home was about to be devoured by a raging wildfire, she jumped into her car and sped away, capturing her evacuation on video to have a memory of the place where she had lived for the past 18 years.

In the shaky footage, the smoke-filled sky glowed orange from the gargantuan flames that had rolled down the mountain and into western subdivisions of Colorado Springs, locking Frye’s neighborhood in a deadly ring of fire.

‘Oh my God,’ she can be heard sobbing as she drove through the hellscape around her. ’We got to get out of here.’

Frye was certain that she was leaving her house for the last time, and ultimately, the wildfire consumed her home and that of her grandmother.

‘So I wanted to make sure I had at least a memory of something that was remaining,’ she said on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360.

Colorado's most destructive fire has destroyed nearly 350 homes, damaged two dozen more and killed two people since it ignited a week ago.

Weeping uncontrollably, Frye described the heart-wrenching scene outside the window of her vehicle, with ashes raining down on manicured lawns dotted with trees and the air heavy with black smoke that blotted out the sky.

Frye said she has not been able to return to the site where her house once stood since the evacuation, but she had come across aerial footage of her neighborhood that confirmed that her home was indeed gone.

Frye recounted that when flames first appeared over the ridge in the distance, her mother, grandmother and sister left, but she and her father stayed behind to water the roof of the house in a desperate attempt to protect the residence from the encroaching flames.

As the wildfire descended into the valley, Frye decided that it was getting too dangerous to stay and went to warn her neighbors, after which she got behind the wheel and headed up the hill and away from the danger.

Despite losing her home, Frye said she made sure to thank the courageous firefighters who have been battling the blaze and saving lives for the past week.

‘My family will be OK, but lives can’t be replaced,’ she said.

Since her emotional evacuation, Frye has been staying in the home of her sister’s boyfriend.

‘It’s rough,’ she summed up the situation.

Firefighters, aided by helicopters, air tankers and military planes dropping water and fire retardant, struggled to get the raging inferno under control, still threatening 20,000 homes and 160 businesses.

Already the Waldo Canyon Fire has scorched more than 17,000 acres -- close to 27 square miles. It was 30 per cent contained by early Saturday, said incident commander Rich Harvey.

The fire forced the evacuation of more than 36,000 people earlier this week. Many have since been allowed to return, while others still await word when they would be able to go home.

The city has organized bus tours for about 4,000 people whose neighborhoods were affected by the disaster.

President Barack Obama declared Colorado a disaster area to allow federal funds to help fight the Waldo Canyon Fire as well the High Park Fire, which has charred more than 87,000 acres and ravaged nearly 260 homes in northern Colorado since it sparked on June 9.

‘We have been putting everything we have into trying to deal with what is one of the worst fires we've seen here in Colorado,’ said Obama while touring Colorado Springs on Friday to survey the devastation. ‘We still got a lot more work to do.'

The U.S. Forest Service has warned it could be mid-July before the Waldo Canyon Fire is fully under control.