SUPERIOR, Colo. (KDVR) – If Mary Stanley’s husband hadn’t bought a bike pump on Amazon, they may have met a different fate on Thursday when the Marshall Fire ripped through their community.
The family car had a dead battery, so Stanley’s husband ordered the bike pump so he could travel by bike.
Like many parents with four-month-old babies, naps can be a survival staple. The family woke up around 11:12 a.m. on Thursday. That’s when Stanley smelled smoke. They went outside and saw flames and realized they had to leave immediately.
After gathering a few things, they tried to find any neighbors that might be able to help, but everyone was gone.
They didn’t know how they were going to get out of the fire’s path, but that’s when a delivery driver named Luanne arrived to deliver the bike pump.
“We could be dead if it wasn’t for Luanne,” Stanley said. “She was our saving grace. A little angel right at the moment that we needed her.”
Luanne asked the couple if they needed help as the Stanley family was outside their gate in the crazy wind, with the fire already burning the nearby shopping center.
“I really don’t think we would have made it out because it was happening so fast and with the winds like that, the gusts were so strong my husband was struggling to stay upright and get all of our things inside the van,” Stanley said.
Stanley had to stand in the delivery van with the baby to get out of the wind.
“She (Luanne) was actually pretty calm about it, she offered to help and she got us in the van and propped us up against the side and she dropped us off at the nearest community center,” Stanley said.
Aerial video shows that Stanley’s home is gone. They now have a picture of where the house used to stand.
“It’s no longer there, it’s just a big pile of ashes,” Stanley said.
The family waited at the community center until their friends picked them up and took them to Mary’s mother-in-law’s house, where they stayed last night.
“We don’t know what our plans are next, you know, we just lost our home,” Stanley said. “We are worried about our neighbors more than our house cause ya know it’s not stuff that makes a home, it’s the people. And we are just glad we got out safe.”
