By Randy R. Kennedy
On June 9th, 2012, just outside of Ft Collins, Colorado Lightning struck a single tree on private land around 6:00 in the morning.
grudgingly, I prayed for this lady’s property. And as I did the lady looked up at me and said, “Mister, if my property is spared I will go to church every day for the rest of my life.”
This fire quickly burned through approximately 136 square miles or more than 87,000 acres.
The blaze took over 2000 fire fighters to fight and more than 3800 personnel to support the firefighting efforts at a cost of over $38.4 million.
Over 250 homes and up to 500 structures were destroyed, and one person lost their life. This was a devastatingly deadly natural disaster to the area and its community.
Because of my service to the state of Colorado, as a state Trooper and as a member of the Colorado Army National Guard I was activated to be the NCOIC of operations. This meant that I was in command of an entire Military Police Battalion responsible for keeping residents of this community safe, along with their property.