Colorado Photographer - Black Forest Fire Memory Mini Session - The Stern Family

Black Forest Fire Memory Mini Sessions

The Stern Family

Callie Riesling Photography

{Colorado Family Photographer}

Black Forest, Colorado

As many of you know, Callie Riesling Photography decided to donate "Memory Mini Portrait Sessions" to any families that lost their home during the Black Forest Fire. This fire was the most destructive fire in Colorado history destroying 509 homes. This fire came almost a year to the date of the Waldo Canyon Fire, the second most destructive fire in Colorado history. These fires took place in the outskirts of Colorado Springs... just miles away from each other. Fires have been so devastating to our tight-knit community over the past few years, destroying  over 800 homes just between Waldo and the BF Fires and have caused death.
We wanted to help these families in some way. 

The Black Forest Fire was much different than the Waldo Canyon Fire.  Waldo was in an unpopulated area for days before it jumped the hill and destroyed so many homes. The Black Forest Fire essentially started in a neighborhood. Many families had to leave very fast or could not return to their homes to get personal belongings like photographs.

Soon after we announced that we would be doing this free of charge for the families that lost their homes, we were contacted by Lara Stern. Lara said that they lost their Dream Home on the first night of the fire and would like to participate in the Memory Mini Sessions as soon as they were allowed back onto their property.

Samuel and Lara Stern have four children. Their dream home was in one of the hardest hit areas and their home was registered as a total loss. They said that they will be rebuilding and putting one of these photos above their new mantel to remind them what they have!

I will let the photos do most of the talking here, but please just keep this wonderful family in your thoughts and prayers while they clean-up, rebuild and deal with their loss. As they kept saying through the portrait session, they were very fortunate to only lose objects!

The map of Black Forest and north Colorado Springs after the fire... the Dark Red is the burn area and the areas in pink, yellow and blue were evacuated/standby areas. Around 38,000 people were evacuated and over 14,000 acres were burned.

The entrance to their neighborhood. (Above)
Their driveway. (Below)

The crumbled metal pieces above were actually brand new appliances.

The entire family loved this tree. The kids climbed it all of the time and it was one of the toughest losses. It used to sit outside their front door. And the metal in the ash below used to be their play set. (above)

The burned metal frame in the 3 images above used to be Samuel and Lara's camper. They said it was their "first home together" and gave them a lot of great memories.  

These images are extremely hard to look at... especially in detail when you realize that the metal frame in the pile of shingles used to be one of the kid's bikes. But, I do want to remind you that the Sterns are overcoming. They are happy to be rebuilding and even happier that none of their family was lost or injured in the fire. 

 Please share these images with friends, family.... anyone. The Sterns want to share their story with the world!
And again, please keep them in your thoughts and prayers!



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