06/06/2026
The Lessons Should Not Be Lost
Nearly six years have passed since the East Troublesome Fire changed Grand County forever.
Since then, we’ve watched new families move here, second homeowners purchase properties, businesses open, and more visitors discover the place we call home.
Through Your Handy Neighbors, we work with an ever-growing number of property owners who were not here during the East Troublesome Fire.
They didn’t watch the smoke column build.
They didn’t receive evacuation notices.
They didn’t experience the uncertainty of those days, the long nights, the incredible response from firefighters and first responders, or the years of recovery that followed.
We’re not trying to scare anyone.
But we do believe it’s important to preserve the record.
Not just the photographs.
Not just the statistics.
The stories.
The experiences.
The observations.
The lessons learned.
As time passes, phones get replaced, hard drives fail, social media posts disappear, and memories fade. We believe future residents, property owners, visitors, and community members deserve the opportunity to learn from those who lived through it.
To help preserve that knowledge, we’ve created the East Troublesome Fire Community Archive.
We’re looking for:
📷 Fire and smoke photos
📷 Evacuation experiences
📷 Structure protection efforts
📷 Recovery and rebuilding photos
📷 Before-and-after comparisons
📷 Personal stories
📷 Lessons learned
📷 Things you wish you had known beforehand
Whether you have one photo, one story, or hundreds, your contribution matters.
Submit photos and stories here:
Google Forms- https://forms.gle/PpLxLDPi1WqHjV5R9
One final note.
We’re still in the early stages of this project, and while we don’t yet know exactly what the final archive will look like, we do know why we’re building it.
Our goal is to preserve the experiences, lessons, photographs, and stories from the East Troublesome Fire in a way that is respectful, educational, and useful to future generations.
We promise to be thoughtful stewards of anything entrusted to us. We’ll do our best to preserve submissions accurately, credit contributors whenever appropriate, and use the material in ways that support historical preservation, wildfire education, preparedness, and community resilience.
Some projects begin with a detailed roadmap.
Others begin with recognizing that something important should not be lost.
This is one of those projects.
Please consider sharing this post so we can reach former residents, property owners, firefighters, volunteers, contractors, utility workers, business owners, and others who experienced the East Troublesome Fire firsthand.
Thank you for helping preserve an important piece of Grand County history.
