When times get rough, it’s reassuring to know friends and the community can be there to lend a helping hand.
That’s the sentiment behind a GoFundMe page organized a day after the apartment of Rory Moskalski and Dawn Amber burned to the ground in the CalWood fire. The couple had been renting space on the top floor of a house on a rural Longmont property that was directly in the path of the fast-moving fire that started on Oct. 17 and burned more than 7,000 acres within hours.
Just a week after the page was started, the fundraiser has netted more than three times its original $2,000 goal. The effort was set up, in part, by Jimmy Pearson, a longtime friend of the couple who lives far from them in California but was devastated to hear about what happened.
“They lived in the upstairs apartment and lost everything. All their clothes. All their furniture. All of it,” he said.
The fire also claimed the couple’s pet, a beloved cat named Spunky.
Pearson said Moskalski, an old college friend, “ was not doing well at first, but now he’s doing better than you might anticipate. He was devastated by the loss of his cat. He had her for nine years.”
Moskalski and Amber weren’t home when their apartment caught fire, Pearson said.
“Rory was out at the gym and Dawn was working at a farm about 5 miles away. Neither of them were there, fortunately. Rory left the gym and immediately saw the smoke and where it was located ... he got through a couple of police barricades by telling the police he lived up there … he was concerned about the property’s caretaker and his cat. But he basically watched the house burn to the ground.”
Everything happened within minutes and the property’s caretaker, who also survived the fire, was doing yard work at the time, Pearson said. After retrieving an address book from the house and opening pasture gates for the horses, the caretaker retreated to a pond on the property to wait out the fire.
Since the fire, Moskalski and Amber have been staying in Longmont, first with relatives, then with friends, and now at a hotel.
Moskalski said he is grateful for the help from the community.
“In this difficult time in 2020 with COVID, and everything else going on, the outreach of community support has brought me to tears and renewed my faith in the best parts of humanity. I’m just so utterly grateful to have that,” he said.
Moskalski said he couldn’t believe how quickly the fire burned. He had been carefully watching the progress of the Cameron Peak fire but hadn’t had any notifications about his area and didn’t think there was any reason to worry until he saw the smoke.
“We were the perfect house in the perfect path, just 1,000 feet off (U.S.) 36,” he said. “Where the property was located was in an area vulnerable to winds, and dryness further caused sparks from the fire to quickly catch.”
The fire burned the house in which Moskalski and Amber’s apartment was located, but he isn’t aware of it touching any of the other immediate neighbors’ properties on the east side of U.S. 36. Even the grass on the right side of his driveway and into the pasture was untouched, he said.
“The strong winds had a factor in how the fire burned. Now I am humbled by the sheer power of the fire,” Moskalski said.
Though it has exceeded its original goal, the fundraiser is still open for those who want to support the couple.
After its devastating run, the CalWood fire as of Monday was 76% contained at 10,105 acres, according to the CalWood and Lefthand Canyon Fires Facebook page. The same page indicates recent snows are helping to further reduce the fire and crews are standing by to resume fire suppression work once snowy conditions clear.
As he considered his experience, Moskalski praised the crews working to fight the fire and save homes. “I have such great respect for them. I am in awe of the firefighters who do that job.”
