Lost in High Park: Search of remains turns up few keepsakes

Glacier View Meadows 12th filing resident Melody Masters met with insurance adjuster Todd Radford on July 6 at what remained of her 1,600-square-foot home on Meadow Mountain Drive. There was no trace of much of anything from the house, other than a pile of heaping metal — the remains of the stove, dishwasher and fridge — where the kitchen stood.

Her search of the ashes the day before with her visiting son, Justin, revealed a small selection of charred keepsakes including small porcelain statues, some dishes and the intact, containerized year-old cremains of her deceased pet dog Goliath.

Subsequent searches of the ashes by Samaritan’s Purse uncovered silverware that had morphed into unrecognizable shapes. Heat fused ash to most of the jewelry, creating a hardened gray crust. Heat from the fire also cooked the color out of a blue topaz ring and turned it clear.

The northern finger of the High Park Fire that roared through Glacier View Meadows on June 22 destroyed 53 homes in the subdivision, about a fifth of the 259 homes lost in the fire.

“The fire did provide the opportunity for a clean slate,” Masters said. “But then it set in that I didn’t have the most basic items like dishes and towels. I didn’t even have a pair of scissors to my name.”