WOODLAND PARK, Colo. (KOAA) — Melanie Hauck moved to her 2.5-acre property in Florissant to fulfill a dream, her late husband's dream.
"He wanted me to come out here, it was his dream, so, I like to think I'm living his dream for him," said Hauck.
Her husband died in December. Two weeks later, she received an unexpected notice from her insurance company.
"These are pictures of what I needed to do and directions on how to get my insurance reinstated. Because they were cancelling me," said Hauck.
To keep her coverage, Hauck's property needed to be more fire ready, a requirement that came with a potentially steep price tag.
"So $25,000? That's with hauling the wood away and everything. I just didn't know about the mitigation," said Hauck.
Hauck is not alone. Tori Gomez, who also lives in the area, said she received the same notice from her insurance company.
"Flashing work, other limbs and trees that needed to be cut down," said Gomez.
Gomez and her husband took on the work themselves.
"Oh gosh, it was every weekend. Every day when we'd get home from work," said Gomez.
Don Moore, founder of NoFloCo, a nonprofit dedicated to fire mitigation, stepped in to help Hauck navigate the process.
"Focusing on Melanie's, when she got the insurance report, yeah, her property had some issues, but there are other properties in much worse shape than she had," said Moore.
Moore said the majority of calls his organization now receives are from homeowners facing insurance-related pressure to mitigate fire risk.
"I would say 65% of the calls we get now are insurance-related issues," said Moore.
His approach focuses on working outward from the home to protect both the homeowner and their neighbors.
"Hardening your home, making sure you don't have needles in your gutters, get rid of that vegetation," said Moore.
All three say people move to the area to be surrounded by forest, which can make it difficult to part with trees. But if those trees are dead or close to a home, removing them may ultimately protect everything they moved there for.
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