Jerri Marr reported that she had run out of fingers in counting how many communities the Waldo Canyon Fire affected. Here’s how it spread. On Tuesday, June 26th. a fire official said “The outlook for Cascade is poor”. “It’s not a good area with the canyon there,”
A shift in the winds shifted the fate of many communities that day.
My pictorial chronicle of The Waldo Canyon Fire begins at www.speakstrong.com/fire
To experience Meryl Runion Rose’s Cascadian pictorial chronicle of the Waldo Canyon Wildfire click here.
When Jerri Marr, forest supervisor for the Pike and San Isabel National Forests stepped into the UTE Pass resident’s briefing last night, there was an audible gasp in the room. Marr gained fans across the city and neighboring communities with her twice daily appearances on local television for the Waldo Canyon Fire Briefings. I’m in the list of her fans.
Marr also gained respect. When the UTE Pass community realized she would be speaking, we broke into applause. I clapped too. Marr seemed a bit taken aback by, but warmed, by the response.
She told us:
The main thing is, she’s a natural. You don’t get the impression that she is practicing great presentation skills. You know you’re listening to someone who knows, cares and shares.
I contrast that to Steve Jobs who could put on a great performance. He had practiced techniques. I can learn from him too, but in my opinion, Steve Jobs is no Jerri Marr.
Check her out below. She’s got a few kindas in there, but she’s so effective she gets a pass on all the communication quirks that would cost her a few points in a Toastmaster’s meeting.
If you’re a Jerri Marr fan too, I invite you to comment below.
e.
The Pyramid Mountain and Waldo Canyon Wildfire touched the entire Colorado Springs community and beyond. Some lost everything. Others lost nothing, yet find themselves transformed. My husband and I ae n the second group.
We all have stories. This section of my SpeakStrong Website is Bob and my story. It’s one of 1,153 Cascadian journies through the experience of the fire. It’s one of the hundreds of thousands of views across the county, state, country and beyond. May our journey deepen yours.
Click on through. Post comments about your own experience of the Waldo Canyon Fire journey. I will be revising and updating this tale, but I post it now because there is too much to say. When words fail us, the pictures fill the gaps.
To experience Meryl Runion Rose’s Cascadian pictorial chronicle of the Waldo Canyon Wildfire from the beginning, click here. To continue, click next below.
They closed the forest. This is probably one reason why. Plus there are still hot spots where embers smoulder. You can see more of the tree below.
To experience Meryl Runion Rose’s Cascadian pictorial chronicle of the Waldo Canyon Wildfire from the beginning, click here. To continue, click next below.
Amazing, isn’t it? The fire jumped some wide roads, but this path stopped it. They held the line here. Highway 24 is off to the left of this picture.
To experience Meryl Runion Rose’s Cascadian pictorial chronicle of the Waldo Canyon Wildfire from the beginning, click here. To continue, click next below.
And another. All across this path and others, we find evidence of our firefighter’s hard work. For example, below you can see where they dug out an ember root of a tree that had burned.
To experience Meryl Runion Rose’s Cascadian pictorial chronicle of the Waldo Canyon Wildfire from the beginning, click here. To continue, click next below.
I took Bob to see the path while it was still clear. The red scrub oak on the right isn’t burned or dried out – it’s covered with fire-retardant slurry. It still amazes me how they held the line here.
To experience Meryl Runion Rose’s Cascadian pictorial chronicle of the Waldo Canyon Wildfire from the beginning, click here. To continue, click next below.
This is where it gets really amazing. I found a path that wasn’t there before. It has been hidden since, but it was an awe-inspiring walk whne I discovered it. This little path is a clear line where the fire stopped. I was told this line helped the whole effort a lot. The cacacde Volunteer Fire Department held the line here.
You can see how, on one side it burned and on the other, it didn’t.
To experience Meryl Runion Rose’s Cascadian pictorial chronicle of the Waldo Canyon Wildfire from the beginning, click here. To continue, click next below.
This dirt road once was a footpath. It became a dozer line for the fire. The fire stopped at the dozer line here. Just about 30 feet down from here, someone – I heard it was a neighbor – cut a path and the fire stopped before it reached this line. Lots of slurry here. The road is Pyramid Mountain Road. The neighbors didn’t care for it at all when it was put in a year or so ago. It did help the fire-fighting efforts.
To experience Meryl Runion Rose’s Cascadian pictorial chronicle of the Waldo Canyon Wildfire from the beginning, click here. To continue, click next below.
I eagerly ventured out to see what had become of my outdoor playground. We had been watching the Incident Commander, Rich Harvey, talk about the fire line in Cascade. That line came out on the far side of our next-door neighbors’ home. We had later heard him say they had been able to contain the fire a bit further away. Which was really good news toour ears.
This is where the original fire line came out. You can see they cleared trees on the burn side and piled them on the side they were defending. It’s pink with slurry.
If you wonder why it’s so pink that’s fire-retardant slurry. There’s a lot of it in the area.
