SUPERIOR, Colo. — Nearly three years since the Marshall Fire tore through Boulder County, killing two people and destroying over 1,000 homes, the pain of that dreadful December day is still fresh in the minds of those who lost everything.
An estimated 1,000 pets died in the fire after many were unable to be rescued.
Right after the Marshall Fire, work began on an app that aims to support pet owners in case of an emergency by connecting them with trusted contacts to help evacuate their furry family members.
Mike Neustedter lives in Original Town Superior with his family. They have rebuilt their home since the fire but are missing a key part of their household — their 11-year-old cat, Kobe.
"Kobe was my wife's cat, and he was a feral cat that she rescued off the streets in Missouri. And she had him when she graduated college, and I met my wife shortly after that," said Neustedter. "We introduced a new dog to him, and we introduced a 1-year-old to him, and so he kind of got to see our family grow, and he was kind of that one stable thing. My wife and my life at the time of the fire, we had a lot of change. So he was more than just a cat.”
Neustedter said Kobe was initially skeptical of him, but over the years, the cat grew fond of him.
"Every single night he would sleep on my chest or sleep in between my legs," Neustedter said. “The big void when you're like, 'He's not here anymore,' because that little weight isn't on your body anymore when you sleep.”
The family took road trips together, and Kobe always tagged along, loving to look out the window as they drove. Over the holidays in 2021 was one of the only times Kobe was left at home with a pet sitter.
“December 30 is burned in my mind, and I think it always will be," Neustedter said. “Oh my gosh, is my house going to be burned down? Is Kobe going to be in it? Is he going to be stuck?"
The pet sitter was running an errand in nearby Louisville when the fire darted toward Superior. They were unable to make their way back to Original Town because of all the traffic and road closures.
Ultimately, no one was able to get to Kobe in Neustedter's home.
Eventually, a bloodhound was brought to Neustedter's property, which searched for missing pets.
“The dog came around, and he sniffed our property, and he stopped right in the spot where, like, we just knew [Kobe] was going to be, which was in our bed," said Neustedter. "He passed away cuddled up on the bed, and he was in his favorite spot. So that kind of gave us some closure.”
The pain of losing a beloved pet was felt throughout Boulder County. Dave Crawford, co-founder and executive director of Animal Help Now, wanted to do something about it.
Crawford and his team developed a new pet evacuation app after the Marshall Fire called Pet Help & Rescue (PHaR). So far, around 700 users have downloaded the app, but Crawford hopes to reach more people.
“Basically, it's a neighbors-based messaging app that allows users to quickly and effectively evacuate neighborhood animals who are home alone when disasters threaten and strike," Crawford explained. “What you do is you download the app, you enter a little information on yourself, your contact information. And then you enter information on your animals, photographs, descriptions, likely hiding places, where their meds are, where their go bags are, etc.”
Next, Crawford said users add their trusted contacts to the app. Hopefully, some of those are neighbors who could help quickly in the event of an emergency.
“If you're gone someday and a disaster threatens your area, your neighborhood, you open the app, you ask for emergency help. It generates a message automatically from all the information that you've already provided, and then it sends it to your contacts, your PHaR contacts," said Crawford. "All that communication happens within the app so that you can ignore all of the other phone calls, texts, emails that you're getting from family and friends wondering if you're okay, and you can focus on what's most important to you at that moment, which is getting your animals out to safety.”
Information on how to enter a user's home will only be given to trusted contacts, Crawford said.
The goal is to add another option for extreme emergencies like the Marshall Fire.
"If we know things are going to really go south, alert everybody in the neighborhood who uses the PHaR app, whether you know them or not. Because when push comes to shove, as it did with the Marshall Fire, it was necessary to allow anybody to do anything to get to your animals," said Crawford. “It's the worst-case scenario, but it's one we want to allow for.”
There's also a non-emergent option, for instances where a pet may need to be fed or taken outside.
Crawford said they are working with a handful of government agencies, hoping to partner with them in emergency situations.
"If an animal can't be evacuated, then we want to alert first responders to the fact that an animal is in that home and needs to be rescued. So, that's another feature that we're we have on tap for 2025," said Crawford.
Helping create this app was therapeutic for Crawford, who also lost his home in the Marshall Fire.
“It's still going on. I mean, everybody is still dealing with this in one way or another. Things will never be the same," said Crawford.
Neustedter hopes PHaR saves other pets in the future, knowing just how hard it was to lose Kobe in the Marshall Fire.
“In Colorado, these wildfires are going to hit you like that, and you're not going to have time to react. You're not going to have time to think clearly. And what this app does is it allows you to not have to think. The app thinks for you," said Neustedter. "I think that's the beauty of it.”
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Military Families Concerned As TRICARE To End Services With Children's Hospital Colorado
In the new year, military families covered by TRICARE insurance will need prior authorization for non-emergency services at Children's Hospital Colorado (Children's Colorado).
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