Hard feelings linger six years after state’s worst wildfire

FLORISSANT — A sign outside a Manitou Springs house boldly proclaims: “Terry Barton — you’re an idiot.” It’s a sentiment you might expect from an area devastated by the state’s largest and most destructive blaze — the June 2002 Hayman fire.
Six years later, Terry Lynn Barton, the woman who started the fire, is as much a polarizing figure now as she was then.

Some folks enjoying a cold beer at the Thunderbird Inn in Florissant on the day after Barton’s release from prison last week struggled to articulate their anger.

Others who knew Barton before she became Public Enemy No. 1 say she deserves a second chance since she has served her time and must perform community service in the counties she set ablaze.

“She’s going to find those that will be real compassionate, and she’ll find folks who want to string her up,” said Lani Griess, 56, who said she thought Barton was a good person, having gotten to know her through parent-teacher associations and other gatherings. “I think people are glad she’s going to have to come back here so she can see what she has done.”

Barton, 44, was released from federal prison in Texas after spending almost six years locked up after the blaze she sparked burned 138,000 acres in four counties.

Now, she begins 15 years of probation and must pay millions in restitution — $14 million to the U.S. Forest Service and what could be more than $25 million in Colorado for actual losses and to ensure victims’ right to pursue civil judgments.
She also must perform 1,500 hours of community service in at least one of the four counties scarred by the fire: Teller, Douglas, Park or Jefferson.

But things have changed drastically since that windy, dry day in June 2002 when a distraught Barton burned a letter from her estranged husband at a campground north of Lake George, and sparks ignited a fire that caused an estimated $238 million in damage and rehabilitation costs. Families have broken apart, destroyed homes have been rebuilt, and much of the landscape still is barren and dotted with blackened tree trunks and little undergrowth.

Emotions are still raw, too.
Christoper Feagin was only 8 years old when the fire forced him and his family out of their rural Teller County home near West Creek.

They had just returned from a vacation and were unpacking when word came they were in the path of the fire and needed to evacuate.

They stayed at a motel in Woodland Park for several weeks, then started the long process of rebuilding their home from the ground up while living in a rental. His parents, Alisha Alitz and Jeffrey Feagin, work full-time jobs and spent almost every evening and weekends rebuilding, a chore still not completed. Alitz began to cry recently, thinking how the work has meant less attention for Christoper and daughter Tempa, 10.

Her son feels robbed, too.

“I hate her for what she did,” said Christoper, now 14.