Boulder Valley School District: Driving Towards The Fire, ‘That's What We Do'

Press release from the Boulder Valley School District:

January 30, 2022

As the Marshall Fire grew out of control, a handful of Boulder Valley School District bus drivers answered the call. With little notice, they volunteered to come in during Winter Break and drove towards danger to help with evacuations.

“It was terrifying. I have never witnessed something so powerful, ever. It was a fire that was absolutely raging,” said Jane Fastenau, from BVSD’s Bus Routing and Field Trip team, who also helps drive buses during the driver shortage.

On the day of the Marshall Fire, Fastenau had been working late and could feel the strong winds literally blowing off part of the building's roof. She decided to go home and saw the fire burning as she drove. When she arrived home, she received a phone call from BVSD Transportation Supervisor Keith Putman asking if she could come back to work to help evacuate medical facilities due to the fire. She returned to work without hesitation.

Through the intense heat of the fire, some drivers were already evacuating patients at the Juniper Village Memory Care Facility, located right next to Monarch High School. However, that team called for additional drivers to come help.

Fastenau met Putman, and about 15 others from the Transportation Department, at the Lafayette terminal. They were ready to provide additional assistance, including a Lafayette dispatcher who came to help, even though he was evacuated from his home.

“Even though my house was in pre-evacuation orders, I knew I needed to help these people. I went to the terminal to do whatever was needed,” recalled the dispatcher. “After being there for a while, I heard from my family and knew that I had to return to help them. I felt torn between wanting to help and needing to help my family.”

Eventually, he learned that he had lost everything in the fire, but his family was able to get to safety.

A bus mechanic looked back at that day remembering a phone call he received.

“It’s funny, as soon as I got the call to see if I could come in and help, my aunt, who lives in Kansas, called to ask if everything was okay,” recalled the mechanic. “At the time, I didn’t know the extent of the damage – just that buses were needed to evacuate folks and that meant that mechanics would be needed too. It was surreal reassuring her that everything was fine, when I knew that it really wasn’t. Chunks of ash drifted down like leaves across the bus parking lot while we pre-tripped buses. It’s unsettling to think back on that and realize that what I was seeing were the tangible remains of our friends’ and co-workers’ homes.”

Lafayette Terminal Supervisor Lynn Tidd spoke with several bus drivers from the first team that headed to Juniper Village to find out what it was like going into the fire.

“As I reached out to each of these individuals [bus drivers] to thank them for their courage and generosity, I was met with humility and a sense of dedication that I just knew this is what each person needed to do to help in the situation,” said Tidd. “As the drivers continued to tell their stories, I was overcome with awe and gratitude for the humble courage they displayed.”

The drivers (who chose to remain anonymous) shared their experience that day:

“I was eager and willing to go and help. I had a sense of urgency and excitement. As we were running out the door to our buses, we realized we had no idea where we were going and needed to return to dispatch to get our location. I approached the hospital from the south on 88th Street. There were embers from the burning homes on St. Andrews Lane. The embers were flying up under the bus. I kept going. It was all so surreal.”

“I followed another driver as closely as I could to Juniper Village. I will not say that I was perfectly in my comfort zone. At one point I radioed the other driver because I was unable to follow him through the black smoke. He responded that he had his four-way hazards on, but I could not see them. I watched the burning embers hit the bus, but continued moving forward until I made it to Juniper House. Upon arrival, I assisted the medical team and “helpers” to load patients on the first bus. The patients were scared, cold and out of their comfort zone. I assisted personnel load my bus. I removed my coat and wrapped it around a patient. She was cold and in tears. Once loaded, I left for Golden Lodge Assisted Living. I headed down South 88th to East Coalton. Fires were burning in plain view and I saw houses being destroyed.”

“As I approached Juniper Village, 12-18 inch chunks of embers were blowing by the bus. It was terrifying. When I arrived, we saw no staff, so I banged on the doors to let them know we were there. Then, I saw a line of people coming out in wheelchairs, using walkers, holding each other. They asked where we were going. I told them they are safe and that we are going to a safe place. I guided people to seats, having to grab one man by the belt to keep him from getting off of the bus. We loaded about 25 people, a dog named Bernie and a cat named Kitty. One hospital staff member boarded the bus and we headed out of town. I was holding the hand of one of the women that seemed particularly distraught. I was comforting, reassuring and engaging the people to help them not be so scared. It took us two hours to get to Golden due to the number of road closures. I found this to be a wonderful and beautiful experience. The people that needed to be helped remain calm. I tried to stay calm for them. This was so surreal.”

After getting the call for assistance from the first team, Fastenau and two other buses were sent to assist at Juniper Village. It took some time for them to get there as they worked their way through road closures, traffic and smoke.

“Heading west on Dillon, I was stopped by police at 96th Street and told I could not proceed. I explained that I was trying to get to the hospital to help evacuate patients,” said one of the drivers. “They would not let me through. So I turned the bus around and travelled north to South Boulder Road. I encountered another police officer there and told him what I was doing. He radioed ahead to allow us to approach the hospital. As I was going there, I saw one of our retired drivers trying to herd his cows to save them. It was like being in a movie, very scary. The wind was blowing so hard. Embers were being tossed by the wind everywhere, hitting the sides of the bus. I could feel the heat from the flames. The flames were right there. Another driver radioed me and asked if we should maybe turn around. I replied that, no we need to help these people and keep going.” Fastenau recalled, “This fire, there was no stopping it, everything in its path was going to be destroyed. And the wind, I’ve never seen a power like that. The driver behind me said ‘should we be doing this?’ and I said ‘we have to’. There were literally embers hitting our bus. The houses just to the right of us were on fire. I was in a propane bus, which is, you know, compressed gas. So at that point, I didn’t know what it would take for that, but you just do what you have to do. When there are people, especially elderly people, that are in that situation, you do what you have to do.”

Fortunately, because the fire was right across the street from the memory center, by the time they arrived all of the people had already been evacuated. Fastenau and her team were unaware of this because they didn’t have radio contact at the time.

“We did have two buses there before and they took the majority out to go to Golden,” said Putman. “They were the ones who contacted us back to say we will need more buses, we can’t get all the wheelchairs in. So that’s why we were trying to get more buses there. Turns out Via Transportation showed up and they helped, so everybody got out fine.”

As the fire raged further and the winds continued to blow, the drivers could feel the heat from the fire and knew they now had to return safely to the terminal.

“We had to get home. How were we going to get to the terminal? There was fire everywhere,” Fastenau recalled. “It was like nothing I’ve ever seen. The bus driver behind me said this is like in the movies, like a war zone movie. I will say my adrenaline was running high.”

On the other side of town, evacuations were needed at the Kestrel Apartments, a retirement community located at South Boulder Road and 95th Street in Louisville. The residents could see the fire from McCaslin Boulevard and wanted to get to safety. Putman dispatched a bus to bring them to the Lafayette YMCA. With traffic from all of the evacuees, it took the bus over an hour to get to the facility, which was only about 15 minutes away. When they arrived they were able to evacuate the residents safely.

Through these heroic acts, bus drivers will say that they just did their job. Many people don’t know that drivers do much, much more than bring students to and from school. They are often asked to help with transportation in the community with special events and yes, during tragedies. They have assisted in major snowstorms picking up stranded drivers, they helped with evacuations during the flood a few years ago, and now they went out into the fire to save lives.

“Our job is about getting kids to school safely, but there is so much more to that. We get involved with families, with kids - any way that we can help, we do,” added Fastenau. “We in transportation consider ourselves more than just getting kids to school. We consider ourselves a fixture in the community that we can always be reached out to. Reach out and we will help in any way we can. The people here are incredibly giving, kind and always willing to help out, and I feel very fortunate to be working here.”

Fastenau did not want to get paid for her time helping out during the fire. She said she wouldn’t want to get paid for trying to help people. But of course she did, and she donated that money back to one of the families who lost everything.

“That’s what we do here. I don’t think enough people know about the incredible people that work in our department,” said Fastenau.

“And a touch heroic, but they don’t see that,” added Putman as he thanked his team. “You’re as good as we always knew you were. It wasn’t a surprise.”

“Yeah, we don’t see that. I wouldn't consider myself a hero. I did what needed to be done and that’s what we do.”

This press release was produced by the Boulder Valley School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.