BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — Every time Sabine Silk, who lives near Harper Lake in Louisville, drives around the community, she sees more and more buildings going up.
"It’s good because it looked really devastating," she said. "It was so sad to drive up here. Now, there’s hope."
Silk is one of the many so-called "standing homeowners" in Boulder County whose homes were not destroyed or heavily damaged in the wake of the Marshall Fire.
In her own words, she said her family is lucky. Their house was spared and her family was able to go inside the following day. The house had no heat and no water. But it was standing.
Some of their friends weren't so lucky. Silk said many are still dealing with issues, especially with insurance companies. They are wondering how they will rebuild their lives, she said.
“The really scary part was when we left and we were sitting downtown in Louisville," Silk said. "There was no way to go anywhere. The fire was around, the sky was burning. We were lucky because if the wind had turned, we would have been dead. Everybody.”
When the blaze was finally out, Silk's home was mostly unscathed.
She had to replace all the windows that faced west, as they were all damaged. Her family sometimes finds ashes in the nooks and crannies of the windows when they open them, she said.
Living in the middle of a burn scar has its challenges and emotional hardships. But they continue to stay optimistic.
In March, Denver7 spoke with Sophia Martin, who's home was also inside the Marshall Fire burn zone, but was not destroyed.
"I don't know how I'm ever going to let them know how grateful we are for what they've done," she said of the firefighters who responded that day.
But her home was not untouched. The hurricane-force winds that pushed the fire left everything inside Martin's home coated in debris and her insurance company deemed it uninhabitable.
She said the smell inside her home was like burned plastic. But she said she felt guilty knowing others in the community lost everything.
"We are the silent victims. People just think, 'Well, your house is still standing. You're fine,'" she said. "They don't see that we're still living in a hotel. They don't see that we're trying to figure out what's safe for my family."
Thanks to generous donations to Denver7 Gives' Wildfire Relief Fund, we delivered two air purifiers that had been at the top of Martin's Wish List.