DENVER (KDVR) — A new memorial in Louisville aims to honor the lives often overlooked in the deadly Marshall Fire in 2021: The hundreds of pets who were unable to make it out.
It’s estimated that the Marshall Fire killed more than 1,000 pets across the thousands of acres it burned. Now in Louisville, residents have a new place where they can remember them.
Manuela Lehti, a Louisville resident, remembers the Marshall Fire like it was yesterday.
“It was scary,” she said.
Having to evacuate from her home, she says her son quickly left the house with only two things.
“He said ‘I didn’t care about clothes. I just- Helo and my insulin and that’s all I needed,'” said Lehti.
Helo is the family dog, who she and her other son, Sven, walked in the Louisville Arboretum on Monday, stopping at the new memorial for pets lost in the fire.
“If someone had lost a pet, that moment of just talking about that, you could tell nothing else really mattered,” said Caleb Dickinson.
Dickinson, Louisville’s mayor pro-tem and chair of nonprofit Louisville Rising, said that’s why they decided a memorial was necessary. Honoring all kinds of animals lost beyond just cats and dogs.
“Lizards, snakes, birds, rabbits — all of those,” he says.
Sven Lehti said having a place to remember them is more than just about pets.
“It’s a part of your family and, for a lot of kids, that’s their companion from as young as, as long as they can remember,” said Sven.
He said he can’t imagine how being forced to leave an animal behind would feel.
“That’s a decision I’m glad I didn’t have to make,” said Sven.
It’s a trauma Dickinson said they wanted to give a space to heal.
“That part’s real and there’s a lot of trauma there and there’s a lot of stuff people are still working through and I think identifying it and recognizing it is important,” said Dickinson.
The memorial was paid for by donations made to Louisville Rising. The artist behind it, Michael Garman, is a firefighter as well, which Dickinson says was the only choice because he knew his heart would be in it.
