{"id":211,"date":"2024-11-28T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/koto.local\/amidst-fire-community-in-nucla-burns-bright\/"},"modified":"2025-05-27T11:51:52","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T17:51:52","slug":"amidst-fire-community-in-nucla-burns-bright","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/koto.org\/es\/news\/amidst-fire-community-in-nucla-burns-bright\/","title":{"rendered":"En medio del fuego, la comunidad de Nucla arde con fuerza"},"content":{"rendered":"

The snow is flying, biting the mountaintops. But it wasn\u2019t so long ago that fire was burning across the region. In August, the Bucktail Fire burned more than 7,000 acres just outside of Nucla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dani Reyes-Acosta was driving home to the West End from a camping trip when she heard about the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cComing down from the mountains, and realizing I\u2019d spent so much time doing something that felt like I connect to myself and people I love and the land,” remembered Reyes-Acosta. “To go home and realize that this land, separated only by a few miles, but connected by a waterway was burning. And there were people out there actively putting their lives in danger and what was I going to do? Just let it happen?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. Reyes-Acosta decided to show up in a way she knew how \u2014 with food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was going to cook dinner for the firefighters battling the Bucktail Fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On her way home, Reyes-Acosta stopped by the Clark\u2019s Market in Norwood to pick up supplies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs I\u2019m going through the aisles picking up 12 pounds of dried beans and 15 pounds of onions \u2014 because of course I\u2019m going to make a Mexican homecooked meal. It turned out that Tonya Stephens from Nucla-Naturita Fire and EMS is on the phone with the Norwood store manager, and Tonya is working to get things donated so we can have food for these folks,\u201d Reyes-Acosta said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it turns out, the wheels were already in motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tonya Stephens has been a volunteer EMS firefighter in Nucla for more than 20 years. The day the fire started, she sent out a message on Facebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI sent out about 10. I said, \u2018I\u2019ll be at the firehall in Nucla at 5 in the morning to fix breakfast for the firemen. Message me if you can help,’ recalled Stephens. “I had eight people message me immediately. I went to bed at 11 and I knew that I had help in the morning.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From there, a community swell of support blossomed. Members of the community, young and old, showed up to donate ingredients or money, and give their time to prepare food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preparation moved from the fire hall to the community center. Dozens of individuals came in and out to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner for more than 150 wildland firefighters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the mornings, at 4:30 in the morning, they get breakfast made, they get lunches made. They have to be to the fire by 6:30 in the morning, so the firefighters can eat breakfast. So by 7 a.m. they can grab their lunches and head out to fight fire,\u201d Cassandra Farmer, another Nucla volunteer EMS firefighter, wife, mom and general do-gooder in the community, described the daily process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen we come back together in the afternoon, cooking dinner, prepping lunches for tomorrow. And then about 6 p.m. we take dinner up to the line\u2026get it all ready, firefighters start coming in and we feed them all. They eat dinner, they go to their basecamp. We clean up and we do it all over until the fire\u2019s over,\u201d Farmer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fire camp is several miles outside of Nucla. Juniper, oak brush and pinyon pine stretch into the distance. The fire is out of sight, over a ridgeline. Over the course of several hours, men and women covered in soot and dirt file through to get their warm meal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several remark it\u2019s the best food they\u2019ve had on a fire before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"A
Wildland firefighters collect dinner while fighting the Bucktail Fire (Julia Caulfield\/KOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an expression of ordinary people doing extraordinary acts for the common good. But Stephens and Farmer say it shouldn\u2019t be a surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen somebody needs something. If somebody is in trouble, if something is happening and they need support, we all come together and we support them. It is just what we do,” said Farmer. “When the firefighters come through that line to get their dinner and they\u2019re so excited and they\u2019re so genuinely thankful. That feeds your heart, and that makes your heart happy to know that you\u2019re part of that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bucktail Fire burned across the mesa for several weeks. In the end, a Nucla man pleaded guilty to starting it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the fire has been contained, the power of community coming together is still there for Reyes-Acosta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we own the fact that we are small but mighty. Whether it\u2019s one person or one community, we step into our power of what can we do?” Reyes-Acosta mused. “That\u2019s where beautiful things happen.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The smoke may be gone, but the strength of Nucla \u2014 its heart \u2014 is still burning bright.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the Bucktail Fire threatened western Colorado, it wasn\u2019t just firefighters on the front lines. Volunteers in Nucla rose early, cooked hard, and showed how small towns show up big.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":471,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-category":[514,542],"news-tag":[848,287,870,302,335,374,376,384,404,407,869,426,523,507,508],"class_list":["post-211","news","type-news","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-category-featured-stories","news-category-rural-news","news-tag-bucktail-fire","news-tag-bucktailfire","news-tag-colorado-wildfires-2024","news-tag-community","news-tag-fire","news-tag-koto","news-tag-kotonews","news-tag-local","news-tag-news","news-tag-nucla","news-tag-nucla-colorado-wildfire","news-tag-radio","news-tag-sqs","news-tag-westend","news-tag-westernslope"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAmidst Fire, Community in Nucla Burns Bright - KOTO FM<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Amid the Bucktail Fire near Nucla, Colorado, locals came together to feed over 150 firefighters with homemade meals and unwavering community spirit.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/koto.org\/es\/noticias-2\/amidst-fire-community-in-nucla-burns-bright\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Amidst Fire, Community in Nucla Burns Bright - 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