Photo Courtesy of Clint Folsom
Fires rage through the town of Superior, Colorado on Dec. 30, 2021.
December 30, 2021, started like any other day for Clint Folsom, mayor of Superior, Colorado.
The Vestavia Hills native, who is finishing up his second and last term as mayor of the four square-mile town near Boulder, spent the morning skiing in Breckenridge. While on a ski lift, his phone buzzed.
It was the town manager, alerting him that wildfires were on their way to Superior.
Back in the town, Folsom’s mother, Jean, who taught biology at Vestavia Hills High School from 1996 to 2008, woke up to what she described as a “smoky smell.”
“I went outside and saw lots of smoke,” Jean said. “We were expecting very high winds.”
Those high winds combined with dry air and fire to destroy 1,000 homes, including Jean’s, between Superior and its neighboring city, Louisville. The fires caused two fatalities and destroyed four businesses while damaging at least a dozen more, Clint said.
“It was devastating,” Clint said. “This is ranking as the worst wildfire disaster in Colorado history.”
Trying to evade the destruction was a harrowing journey, Jean said. Following her son’s instructions to evacuate, she grabbed a few important items and got in the car with Clint’s wife and children. The family headed south, tried to get a hotel in Broomfield, but were told they were evacuating as well. A hotel in Denver didn’t work out either, but the family was told there was another hotel in Broomfield that would take them. But when they arrived, they were closed.
While in one of the hotels, Clint called and asked to talk to his mother. He had to tell her that her home was one of the roughly 400 homes in Superior that was destroyed.
“It was just truly heartbreaking to break that news to her,” Clint said.
Jean said she had downsized when she moved to Colorado to be closer to family. She brought only what was most meaningful to her.
“And now it’s all gone,” she said.
Photos of her parents, of her and her brother when they were younger, photos from travel and all of her clothes are gone. While it was recovered, Jean said a silver tray that had been given to her great-grandmother in Scotland was badly charred.
Eventually, the family got together with Clint, who had been surveying the damage with the town manager and personnel from the sheriff’s office. The family stayed with a friend in Golden, south of Superior.
“Driving around in unknown territory at night where I didn’t know where I was going … I was glad to get to ride with him,” Jean said.
In the following days and weeks, there would be numerous media requests, a visit from the president and first lady and, slowly but surely, the return of the residents of Superior.
“It’s felt like months, not weeks,” Clint said.
Superior is a “friendly, community-oriented town,” Clint said. There are hiking and biking trails, along with a great school system in the city nestled between Denver and Boulder, he said.
“It’s been a difficult situation. We don’t really have a handbook on how to handle this as mayor,” Clint said.
The next steps for the city are to determine if the Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse homeowners for debris removal on private property, which has created public health concerns, Clint said.
Those who have lost their homes have had to find temporary housing, and it will likely take a year or more to rebuild. Temporary housing is made more difficult as the only hotel in the city burned down. With the rapidly rising cost of construction, supply chain issues and labor shortages, that work becomes even more difficult, Clint said.
The healing process will take time, Jean said, but is made easier with the help of friends and family. The fog that had come over Jean’s mind since the fire that took her home finally began to lift in early February, she said.
“The hours and hours of long phone conversations I’ve had with friends and family, it’s like a therapy to talk about it,” Jean said. “I don’t even feel like I’m repeating myself. You’re processing it and coming to accept it.”
While Vestavia Hills is more than 1,300 miles away from Superior, the Folsoms still have a support network in the city.
“I’m still very connected to a lot of my classmates,” Clint said. “People have reached out to offer support.”
Clint, who graduated from VHHS in 1988, said Vestavia was a great place to grow up, while Jean said she plans on coming back for a while.
“That way I’ll be removed from seeing it day in and day out,” Jean said. “I don’t have to go back to the house, but I do. Seeing the whole neighborhood, it’s tough. I need to just get away and think about what I’m going to do moving forward.”
Jean said she’s had close friends and others reach out to offer support and even a place to stay.
“It’s just so good to get to talk to them and know they’re thinking about me and praying for me,” Jean said.
For those wanting to help, Clint said the best way is to donate to the Community Foundation of Boulder County. For more information, visit commfound.org.
