By Leo Rivera IV 

It was a tame October night when all of a sudden, sounds of explosions and shattered glass echoed through the small mountain town of Nederland, Colorado. Bright red sparks and flames shot up into the sky, and firefighter Larissa Briscombe ran as fast as she could into position. 

“I literally put my bunker gear on, got dropped off, got on a hose and started putting water on the fire,” Briscombe said. “I wasn’t really thinking much more than ‘I can’t believe this is happening.’”  

In the early morning of Oct. 9, a large fire engulfed Nederland’s Caribou Village Shopping Center, destroying 18 businesses. It was a big loss for a town of about 1500 residents.

The Wild Bear Nature Center, a non-profit that educates local kids, was one of the places that burned to the ground. Some small reptiles and other critters housed in the nature center died in the fire.  

“I was supposed to come in and go to work that day,” said Samantha Tindall who works at Wild Bear. ” I was like, ‘What are we going to do next?”

Nederland is 17 miles from Boulder and a natural gateway to the Indian Peaks Wilderness and Eldora Mountain Resort areas. It is a popular tourist hub for hiking, biking, skiing and fishing.

The fire struck in the heart of town, burning down businesses that made up over 30% of the tax revenue, according to town’s local newspaper, The Mountain Ear. A few stores survived with minor exterior damage including B&F Mountain Market and the Carousel of Happiness. 

Carousel owner Scott Harrison handcrafted each of the wooden animals in his restored merry-go-round. As a Vietnam veteran, he opened the carousel in 2010 to provide a space for young and old to reset and enjoy a tune. Harrison was out in the early hours of the fire, hosing down his carousel before the fire department took over.  

Patricia Hagberg has been around the carousel for a dozen years as a worker and volunteer. 

“It hurt inside,” she said. “When I heard the news, I was in tears. We were closed for a week, and when we first came back, it was hard to talk about it. They lost everything, but they’re going to pick up and go on.”   

The neighborhood is trying to start anew. Some of the businesses are already seeing donations and outreach.  

“Being able to see the community response and feel we really are getting through this together, that has been so heartwarming,” Wild Bear’s Tindall said. “It makes it a little less devastating.” 

The Carousel is offering free rides to anyone who makes a donation. 

“We’re a very scrappy community, we’re a very resilient community,” said Allie Wagner, another carousel worker. “And while the carousel itself doesn’t have a sizable donation that it can make to those businesses, we do have a carousel that people love.”