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Firefighters Save Rings In Wedding Day Disaster

By Melissa Garcia

BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) – Firefighters in Boulder County saved the day and the wedding bands for a couple whose charter bus trolley went up in flames over the weekend. The bride and groom's best man accidentally left the rings on a burning bus.

Wedding Trolley Fire 21 (CREDIT Sarah Christine Photography)
(credit: Sarah Christine Photography)
Wedding Trolley Fire 3 (CREDIT
(credit: Sarah Christine Photography)

Fire broke out on the trolley-style bus Saturday as a wedding party was on their way to take photos on Flagstaff Mountain before the ceremony.

Firefighters raced from the Boulder Fire Department to the scene where some could see smoke from at least 10 miles away.

Wedding photographer Sarah Martin of Sarah Christine Photography snapped pictures as smoke poured from the trolley engine. Plumes billowed high, and the coughing groomsmen and dashing bridesmaids made a run for the forest.

The flowers made it out of the bus, but the rings did not.

Before long, the bus was ablaze.

Wedding Trolley Fire 11 (CREDIT Sarah Christine Photography)
(credit: Sarah Christine Photography)

The party piled into a pickup and made it to safety but they feared the rings had a different fate.

"These guys searched for quite a while, and were unable to find anything," said Lt. Jeff Martinez, a firefighter with the City of Boulder Fire Department.

Wedding Trolley Fire 7 (CREDIT Boulder Fire Rescue)
(credit: Sarah Christine Photography)

"We were like, do we walk away? Do we let the trolley get pulled away (with) those rings still in there?" said Chris Rivera, another firefighter.

"We went back and I said, let's take one more look and see if we can find those things," Martinez told CBS4's Melissa Garcia.

firefighters
(credit: CBS)

"We thought we were looking for maybe some diamonds," Rivera explained. "But we found the whole (rings)."

The crew who helped douse the flaming bus, found both bands buried in four feet of debris inside the obliterated vehicle.

"(It was) very surprising to us that (the rings) survived the fire honestly," Martinez said. "They were covered in black tar. ... We polished them up and got them somewhat back to normal."

Wedding Trolley Fire 10 (CREDIT Boulder Fire Rescue)
(credit: Sarah Christine Photography)

Later on, firefighters showed up at the newlyweds' reception in Lyons with the best wedding gift the couple could have asked for.

"They were very grateful," Martinez said.

No one suffered any injuries.

Melissa Garcia has been reporting for CBS4 News since March 2014. Find her bio here, follow her on Twitter @MelissaGarciaTV, or send your story idea to mkgarcia@cbs.com.

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