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Ministry Helps High Park Victims Find Homes For The Holidays

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) - The High Park fire destroyed 259 homes when it burned in the foothills west of Fort Collins last summer.

When it was over many Northern Colorado residents were stuck with a piece of land amid 87,000 scorched acres but no home one it in which to live.

When the evacuation orders were called off for Anne Kainau she returned to find a pile of rubble -- and she had no insurance. But she didn't want to give up the beauty of living in Colorado's forests.

"I did investigate all-season tents," she told CBS4's Northern Newsroom reporter Ty Brennan.

Thankfully it didn't come to that, thanks to Pastor Randy Rivers with the Poudre Christian Fellowship.

"The idea is people like her, in Anne's case, have lost everything but they still have their property," he explained. "They're homeless; they have a place to be but no home."

So the pastor went to work matching those displaced homeowners with trailers.

"It was just a wonderfully fulfilling to see that just a little vision that I had started turn into something very tangible," Rivers said.

Randy Rivers
Pastor Randy Rivers, right, walks with CBS4's Ty Brennan. (credit: CBS)

For Kainau and others who moved into the trailers, the gifts prove how one person's generosity can mean a home for the holidays for others.

"It warms my heart all the folks who are so gracious and who have helped me and it's means so much," said Kainau. The list is pages long of people."

LINK: lovereaches.org

Wildfire Resources

- Visit CBSDenver.com's Wildfire Resources section.

- Read recent Wildfire stories.

Wildfire Photo Galleries

- See images from the most destructive wildfires (Waldo Canyon, High Park and Fourmile) and largest wildfire (Hayman) in Colorado history.

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