The Aspen Acres Fire tore through more than 93,000 acres of Pueblo County, Colorado, but the town of Beulah is still standing, thanks largely to a small band of 22 volunteer firefighters who refused to give up. In an act of extraordinary courage, several of these volunteers kept battling the flames even after they learned that their own homes had been reduced to ash.

A Town on the Brink

By 6 p.m. Tuesday, the fire had grown to nearly 93,916 acres with only 16% containment, and roughly 1,646 personnel had been assigned to fight it. But long before those larger resources arrived, it was Beulah’s own volunteer department standing between the town and total destruction.

For public information officer Jill Laca, the worst day was one the community had always dreaded. She described Monday as a nightmare they had hoped they would never have to face.

The danger escalated with terrifying speed. Fire Captain Tom Laca, Jill’s husband, recalled crews first spotting the flames as they crested a nearby hill. Then the wind turned. Instead of moving away, the fire suddenly surged straight toward the town.

Once the wind shifted, he said, there was no time to plan, only to act, and the crews rushed in to save whatever they could.

“You Need to Get Here”

For volunteer firefighter Ross Marsh, the gravity of the situation became clear in a single phone call. When he reached a fellow volunteer to ask how bad things had gotten, the answer was blunt: he needed to get there immediately.

Marsh said every natural factor seemed stacked against them that day. The fuel on the ground, the intense heat, and the surrounding terrain all worked in the fire’s favor. At one point, the crews genuinely feared they might lose the entire valley, and he admitted the town came dangerously close to being wiped out completely.

Lives Before Property

Even as the flames closed in, the firefighters kept their priorities clear. According to Tom Laca, the crews focused first on protecting people, not buildings.

Houses, he pointed out, can be rebuilt, but the priority was making sure every resident was safely out of harm’s way. To that end, firefighters moved door to door through the community, alerting residents and urging them to evacuate.

That philosophy hit close to home for the Laca family. Jill Laca shared that her own son was among the first responders, heading to Aspen Acres on the initial attack truck. As the fire threatened their house, she remembered calling her husband, not to plead for the home, but for the people inside her life.

She told him she understood he was trying to save what he could, but that the house didn’t matter to her. All she wanted was her husband and her son back safely. In her words, she only cared about the heartbeats.

Fighting On After Losing Everything

Perhaps the most remarkable part of the story is what some firefighters did after receiving devastating news about their own properties. According to Tom Laca, several volunteers were informed that their homes had burned, and yet they kept working to protect the rest of the community.

Among them was a mother-daughter team within the department. Jill Laca said the pair lost their home in the fire, yet both continued fighting without hesitation.

That kind of resolve, according to Marsh, comes from the tight bonds of a small volunteer force. In a department like theirs, he explained, everyone functions as a family, and that sense of family extended beyond the firefighters themselves. Their relatives supported the effort from the station, keeping the operation running during the most desperate hours.

Marsh noted that Beulah had been held almost entirely by volunteers for about a week before additional outside resources finally arrived.

Signs of Hope Amid the Loss

Despite the painful losses, there was real reason for relief. Tom Laca said that a significant portion of the town survived, describing the main area of Beulah proper as being in good shape.

For a community that came within moments of losing everything, the survival of the town’s heart stands as a testament to what a handful of determined people can accomplish under impossible conditions.

The Fight Isn’t Over

While Beulah has been largely spared, the broader battle against the Aspen Acres Fire continues. Crews have been constructing fireline to defend the nearby communities of Greenwood and Wetmore after the blaze pushed toward them Sunday night. Meanwhile, hotshot crews have been engaging the fire south of Highway 165 near Rye.

The threat remains widespread across the region. Evacuations and pre-evacuations are still in effect across several counties, including:

• Custer
• Pueblo
• Fremont
• Huerfano

In addition, Stage 2 fire restrictions have been imposed in Custer and Pueblo counties, as well as across the Pike-San Isabel National Forests and the Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands.

A Story of Community and Courage

The tale of the Aspen Acres Fire is, at its core, a story about ordinary people doing something extraordinary. Twenty-two volunteers, many of them neighbors and family members, stood their ground against overwhelming odds to protect the place they call home.

Some of them paid a heavy personal price, losing the very homes they were fighting to defend. Yet they stayed on the line, driven by a sense of duty to their community that outweighed their own losses.

As the region continues to grapple with the ongoing fire, the people of Beulah have already been given a powerful reminder of what genuine courage and community spirit look like when everything is on the line.