The first sightings of the Waldo Canyon Fire on Saturday, June 23, 2012 didn’t reveal what would happen in coming days.

The fire started at around 1 o’clock in the afternoon, but most people didn’t notice it until later. At about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, a huge plume of gray black smoke drifted high into the sky, bringing attention to the beginning of the city’s largest ordeal in its history.

The fire was extremely destructive. It burned 18, 247 acres and destroyed 346 homes. Two people were killed in the 17 day ordeal.

The fire was declared 100% contained on July 10, 2012.

The true power of the fire was revealed on Tuesday, June 26. The fire jumped from roughly 6,000 acres to 15, 324 acres, breaching Colorado Springs city limits and burning multiple homes.

The fire caused the clouds to turn a red orange, mixed with black. Daylight at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon turned to a smoky orange blackness, raining ash down onto residents in the nearby areas. The fire was the only light, shining embers and burning homes lighting the way in eerie glows.

“I’ve never been in a situation that affected me directly before in my life. It scared me a lot, but luckily the fire fighters got the blaze under control before the fire reached the Air Force Academy. I live right across the freeway from there,” sophomore Mark Clinton said.

Though the fire never reached the Academy itself, it still burned plenty of acres and homes. It was extremely destructive and caused the community to become even more reliant on each other.

Panic covered the city, as the fire raced unchecked down the mountains towards the Mountain Shadows neighborhood. People were racing to get into the neighborhood as they got off work, but the fire consumed the houses and made the area too unsafe for residents. Many lost everything because there simply wasn’t enough time to retrieve their possessions after work and before the fire reached them.

“I was at my brother’s work when it came down the mountain. I was so scared,” sophomore Kaitlyn Clark said.

Lewis-Palmer High School was an evacuation center after residents in Colorado Springs got evacuated on June 26.

The southern half of Monument was on pre-evacuation orders, and residents were getting prepared to leave. Rampart Reservoir burned, and is now closed to the public. It is unknown when the Reservoir will be reopened.

This fire has brought the community together. We now depend even more so on each other through how everyone banded together to make sure people got enough to eat and they got clothes and places to stay. We appreciate our firefighters even more, and we appreciate the strangers that have opened their hearts.