LAPORTE, Colo. (AP) -- Memories of the Picnic Rock Fire are never far away for Judy Schalles, a resident of the Bonner Peak Ranch subdivision northwest of Fort Collins.
But she wishes they were.
''We're trying to forget it,'' she said. ''It's still a scary thing. But I imagine it will be with us a long time.''
A little more than a year ago, on March 30, 2004, the second-largest wildfire in Larimer County history began near the mouth of Poudre Canyon when flames from a yard-waste fire were fanned out of control by swirling winds.
Over nine days the blaze grew to 8,900 acres, forced the evacuation of 140 residents and taxed the ability of fire officials to control it despite help from slurry bombers, helicopters and hotshot crews from other states.
The arrival of cool, wet weather helped crews bring the fire in check, but only after it had taken one home and a garage in Bonner Peak Ranch and threatened numerous other structures.
Jim and Sabrina Grieser owned the lone house destroyed in the fire.
The family is still struggling with the emotional and financial fallout from their loss.
''Jim and I live day to day,'' Grieser said. ''We have learned that's all you can do. There is no use in worrying about tomorrow because everything you have can be taken away from you just like that.''
The family had a contract to sell the 3,300-square-foot home that they had owned for seven years and was 18 days from closing the deal when the fire struck. Some items, such as family pictures and heirloom antiques, were removed from the house before the Griesers had to evacuate, but most of the family's possessions were still in the house.
The fire took the house and everything in it. Jim Grieser, a log-home builder who used his house as a showhome, lost his tools. After the fire, Poudre School District set up a fund to help the family.
Sabrina Grieser, who works as a paraprofessional at a local elementary school, said donations helped her family start putting their lives back together.
''We want to thank the community for all that they did for us,'' Grieser said. ''The outpouring of love was incredible.''
The fire was named for the Picnic Rock takeout area on the Poudre River, which sits across Colorado Highway 14 from where the fire started. Anthony ''Tony'' Sanchez, the man who accidentally started the fire, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor arson charge last year.
He was sentenced to three years probation, 300 hours of community service and restitution of $863,611.40. Sanchez, who said he and his family were often harassed after the fire started, has moved and could not be reached for comment.
The fire was not as devastating in terms of ecological or property damage as it could have been, said Sonya Whitesell, fire prevention officer with the Canyon Lakes Ranger District of the U.S. Forest Service.
''This is probably the only 8,900 acres in Larimer County that we could burn and only lose one house and one garage,'' Whitesell said. ''You lay the footprint of this fire over any other area in Larimer County, and it could have been a lot more catastrophic.''
But evidence of the fire remains in Bonner Peak Ranch, where blackened trees stand along ridge lines and the remains of burnt logs lie in open fields.
Although some of the grass and undergrowth that burned grew back last summer, the landscape was changed by the fire, said resident Karin Kaufman.
''There is a lot less fuel on the ground,'' she said. ''It was amazing how the ground was cleared.''
Kaufman and other Bonner Peak residents were evacuated on the third day of the fire. She went home after five days and didn't realize how close the fire had come because she returned at night. The next morning she discovered it had burned completely around her house.
''I was amazed at how much burned and how black some of it was,'' she said. ''Everything burned _ not all the trees, but the grasses did.''
The fire was a learning experience, Kaufman said. A year later she is still working to improve her landscaping to protect her house, such as widening the gravel firebreak on the backside of the property.
Schalles and her husband, Bud, have lived in Bonner Peak Ranch since 1983. Over the years they've had scares from wildfires, but the Picnic Rock blaze was the first to drive them from their home.
For three days they lived in a camper in a parking lot near the entrance to the subdivision off U.S. Highway 287. The lot also served as a command center for crews fighting the fire and media covering their efforts.
Once they were allowed to return home, it took a few days to settle in.
''One of us was up all the time just looking out the window to see if anything was going on,'' she said. Being evacuated taught them to be better prepared for the ''next time,'' Schalles said.
A box of supplies needed for an extended stay away from home sits by the front door, she said, along with another containing important documents and pictures.
The experience reminded them that people are kind, she said. Restaurants in LaPorte sent food to the command post and to Cache la Poudre Elementary School, where other evacuees gathered. The local chapter of the American Red Cross also supplied food and drinks.
And she hasn't forgotten the firefighters who put so much effort into fighting the fire, or the way the community as a whole rallied to help those who were endangered by its unforgiving flames.
''There are a lot of really good people out there,'' she said. ''It's easy to forget that they are there.''
