COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Steve Dennison knew his home wouldn't survive the Aspen Acres Fire. He watched it anyway — long enough to know there was nothing he could do — and then spent the next six hours making sure his neighbors got out alive.
Dennison is a volunteer deputy with the Custer County Sheriff's Office. He lives just a half mile from where the fire started at Custer Drive and Highway 165.
Watch the video report below:
He was there when it began.
"That's where it was burning and crowning about half acre at the time, 5:30 in the morning," Dennison said.
Watch video of the fire below:
As a former wildland firefighter, he immediately recognized what was coming.
"We had winds about 40 out of the west. So I told everybody 'call 911, get out!' And we all just started evacuating," Dennison said.
His cellphone video, which captured how quickly the fire grew and what it left behind, has been viewed tens of thousands of times. In the footage, Dennison can be heard saying "this might be the last time I see my house," and later, "There's no way to fight this, not with the wind."
He was right. His home did not survive.
The morning after the fire, Dennison returned to the property. What had been his home was now — in his words — "a dirt lot." The fire went around the graves of his two dogs, Gracie and Maya, and spared his barn — but everything else was gone.
Dennison credited his neighbor, Gabe Martinez, for also helping with evacuations as the two went door to door for six hours that day.
"He got the bulk of it first thing in the morning and woke people up out of their sleep," Dennison said.
When asked about choosing to save others instead of his own belongings, Dennison didn't hesitate.
"It's about the people," Dennison said. "That's what hurts the most is just all of my friends and neighbors, we're all in the same boat. We lost everything. The only good thing that happened is there was no loss of life."
Dennison said his sense of duty is simply part of who he is.
"I think it's just in my nature. It's the way God created me," Dennison said. "I consider myself a sheepdog. I've always been in military service, Department of Corrections, fire, now sheriff. So it's just who I am."
Dennison has been offered a full-time position with the Custer County Sheriff's Office. His training will wrap up in December. He does not plan to rebuild.
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