Still smoldering: the four Mile Canyon fire outside boulder has left a residue of anger, confusion and loss.

• Author: Titus, Stephen
• Position: WHO OWNS colorado

THE 6,250-ACRE FOUR MILE CANYON FIRE WAS DEEMED "CONTAINED" ON SEPT. 13,

2010. a week after it started a few miles west of downtown Boulder. But for those whose homes it touched, the impact of this relatively small forest fire will be felt for decades.

Some 169 structures were destroyed and hundreds more damaged. Since then Boulder County has issued only 30 building permits, and some residents of the area predict only half the homes will be rebuilt. Depending on whom you speak to, blame for the slow pace of rebuilding is spread between county officials, the state of Colorado, the economy and insurance companies.

Conversations with residents about this subject can quickly spiral into anger and frustration. Some still can't talk about it. Others talk as a kind of therapy. To understand how bad the situation was - and is - and how ravaged people living in the canyons feel, it helps to go back to the day residents were allowed to go home.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Relief and despair

With the fire contained, Thia Martin traveled to the mouth of Sunshine Canyon as the 55-year-old artist did every day since the fire started, waiting for firefighters to lift road blocks so she could confirm whether reports on her house were true--that her 8,000-square-foot home and studio were gone. Permission to go home now registered as an alien concept to the reclusive artist. She had evacuated with a handful of possessions that didn't seem as important to her anymore.

"I grabbed cameras, my journal and some other meaningful things like photos, but nothing of my kids.' I don't know why," Martin said.

The cameras are important to her work as a film documentaries. She's working on a documentary of the fire and the recovery process and hopes to release it at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. Traveling up Sunshine Canyon, the heavy smell of burned timber was everywhere. The damage was horrific: and random with one house reduced to ash while another was untouched. Amazingly, Martin's house was not destroyed.

"I was feeling like one of the lucky ones," she said. "My first experience was walking in the house and seeing it was so black, covered in soot. Three fourths of the house was greatly impacted and would have to come down."

There was a combination of shock and relief, but mostly confusion. What's next? How does this get repaired? Who will do the work? What will it cost? As she contemplated the next move, opportunists wearing tool belts and carrying fliers...