A wildfire in the Black Forest area of Colorado destroyed the home of an Alaskan family last month.
Major Jared Wandell, of the Alaska Army National Guard, was serving a three-year tour with U.S. Northern Command in Colorado when the fire broke out. Wandell, a father of seven who plans training exercises involving natural disaster scenarios, had previously ensured his family had an evacuation plan in case of emergency.
"We were fairly well prepared," Wandell said.
The family had warning before evacuating their home, Wandell said, but all the while they didn't think it was very severe.
"We went through our checklist, collected all of our important documents, pictures, and hard-drives," he said. After we were done, we were just kind of looking around the house, thinking 'okay, what do we do now?' The mindset wasn't that we would never come back. I was putting clothes from the washer to the dryer. I thought we'd only be gone for a few days."
Part of the family's evacuation plan involved staying with friends. He said it wasn't long though before their friends' home was also given an evacuation warning due to the same fire.
The family didn't immediately know the condition of their home, but Wandell said after a few days, they prepared for the worst.
"You know, [my wife and I] were thinking our house is probably gone, but when it's true, you get this pit," Wandell said, getting choked up. "This pit in your stomach, and it just sinks. It's just devastating. There's nothing left. Our house is just foundation, with ash and some metal sticking out."
More than five-hundred homes were destroyed, and approximately another one-hundred damaged. The Black Forest area was also hit the summer of 2012 by wildfires.
Wandell and his family won't rebuild. He says there just isn't time, and they are hoping to return to Alaska when his contract is up.
With many wildfires affecting the state of Alaska this summer, Wandell said the best advice he has for people facing similar situations is to mitigate dangers around the home by cutting down trees, not keeping woodpiles near structures, and use non-wood siding, if possible.
One lesson Wandell learned from this experience is an unexpected one, he said.
"One of the hardest things for us is the receiving part. You know, we're like most people-we're happy to give and do service. When it's your turn to receive, sometimes it's hard to do, and we're just learning to accept it," he said. "So it takes a bit of humbling, but you can't do this on your own when you've lost everything and you're starting over."
Friends of the family set up an account at Wells Fargo to accept donations. The account name is "Jared and Janine Wandell Donation Account" and contributions can be made at any Wells Fargo bank location.