Northern Colorado evacuees familiar with natural disasters as wildfires force them from homes, businesses

A Colorado hotel a few miles east of the Alexander Mountain Fire evacuation zone in Loveland was fully booked Wednesday night. Evacuees moved pets, suitcases, blankets and other belongings inside from the packed parking lot.

A table of packaged food and essentials was laid out for them in the hotel lobby. This is not the first time this hotel has had to shelter evacuees.

"Right before I left, the sheriff's deputy came by and he was evacuating people," said Dale Townsend.

Townsend had only moments to evacuate his Glen Haven home Wednesday morning.

"What items do you take out of your house? What do you leave? You can't take everything," Townsend said.

Fleeing the Alexander Mountain Fire, Townsend brought his dog Juniper, and some essentials, to a hotel in Loveland.

"I brought my good whiskey, and some photo albums, and lots of dog food and treats," Townsend said.

It's not Townsend's first time there.

"During the Cameron Peak Fire, I evacuated to the same motel in October 2020. I thought I'd be here for two or three days. I was here for 21 days," Townsend said.

Townsend and his Northern Colorado neighbors have experienced their fair share of natural disasters.

"We had to shut locations down with the flood back in 2013. It blacked out both canyons," said Anthony Lehnert.

Lehnert owns the Colorado Cherry Company, a northern Colorado staple.

"Our main claim to fame is the cherry pie," Lehnert said.

On Monday, the Alexander Mountain Fire forced them to evacuate their Loveland location.

"Lock it up and get out. We can deal with all the other stuff whenever. We'll have some product that will go bad obviously," Lehnert said.

Then Tuesday, the Stone Canyon Fire forced the evacuation of their Lyons shop.

"This was kind of wild. It's like, are you kidding me? We've got the one in Loveland and all of a sudden Lyons as well," Lehnert said.

Fortunately, when Highway 36 reopened Wednesday, so did the Cherry Store.

"We thought, okay, if we can get up here we might as well give it a shot. We've had a steady stream of people still heading up to Estes Park. Hopefully, for the people who normally would be trying to get up Highway 34, they can come up here and if they want to get a pie or something they can still do that," Lehnert said.

But no one is breathing a sigh of relief yet.

"You never know how these things go. We've been evacuated here before," Lehnert said.

As they wait to see how these fires compare to previous disasters.

"I'm hoping it's not going to be another three weeks in a motel," Townsend said.

"The beautiful part of it is being up here, but it's also, you get the ups and downs with it," Lehnert said.