Two veteran Longmont Police Officers — one a SWAT team leader — had seen a lot over their long careers. But nothing prepared them for the explosive landscape they worked during the Dec. 30 wildfire that engulfed Louisville and Superior.
As the fire raged, Sgt. John Garcia and his eight-person SWAT crew quickly worked to evacuate residents in Louisville neighborhoods. Commander Jason Malterud, meanwhile, worked to control traffic and helped coordinate resources and people to put them where they were needed most during and after the blaze was controlled.
When the smoke had literally cleared, as many as 1,000 structures were left either destroyed or badly damaged and both communities were empty.
Both Malterud and Garcia said this week that the fire — stoked by wind clocked at nearly 100 mph — showed a violent and arbitrary streak that stunned them.
“I’ve been a police officer for 25 years,” Malterud said, “I’ve seen forest and house fires before but I’ve never seen a fire work through a community like I saw in Superior and Louisville. It was Mother Nature at her finest.”
“It was like an atomic bomb went off,” Garcia said. “I have never seen a fire act that way. It was almost like a blow torch was inside each home and it was blowing out sideways. And the roar the fire made, seeming like it was creating its own weather system.”
Malterud and Garcia worked overtime during the Marshall fire. Garcia was at home enjoying a holiday vacation when he received a text on Thursday to go help in a situation that was quickly unraveling for residents and first-responders. .
Malterud said some houses in an entire neighborhood were totally torched while the fire left one or two totally untouched. In one neighborhood, a whole row of houses were gone but the fire left mailboxes on wooden posts intact.
“I’ve seen that same thing with tornadoes, wiping out a couple of homes and leaving others alone,” he said. “But I never seen a fire do that.”
The wind-driven fire moved so quickly through the day and night on Dec. 30, firefighters never had a chance to make a stand, Malterud said. “They really couldn’t even get into areas to fight the blaze.”
The agencies called in to help quickly rallied to coordinate efforts, Malterud said, to get residents safely away from the fire.
“I guess we are like brothers in a family. Sometimes we poke fun at each other and even fight a little bit when there is nothing else going on,” Malterud said. “But when there is an emergency like this, all the egos and ranks get set aside because everyone knows they have a job to do.”
Civilians also stepped up almost immediately, he said. “Some young ladies brought in horse trailers to go where they needed to go to pick up animals,” Malterud said. “They saw a need and immediately stepped in.”
“In my career, I’ve definitely seen the worst of people,” he said. "But it always amazes me to see the best of people step up to help each other.”
SWAT members wore their uniforms as they went from door-to-door to get people out on Dec. 30. Most homes were empty, as their owners were likely at work, Garcia said.
Others didn’t quibble when told they had to leave. “They just grabbed a few things they felt they needed and left,” Garcia said.
At least one of the first neighborhoods his team worked was so quickly engulfed by flames, Garcia worried they would be trapped. “It was like in seconds entire homes would be engulfed,” Garcia said. “I remember realizing the neighborhood was becoming extremely dangerous for us. We knocked on as many doors as we could, but we left because I worried we were going to be overrun.”
“The fire was so random,” he said. “You could get easily cut off from one another.”
The next day, Garcia said, he returned to the neighborhoods his team worked to evacuate and found homes reduced to burnt husks or wiped out altogether. “What I saw was completely shocking to me,” he said. “I’m still processing that experience.”
