In a recent edition of the Herald, a letter writer offered up the thought that “The least the owners of these rental properties (in Tamarron and Purgatory) could do would be to provide a clean, comfortable refuge for the firefighters.” I can most assuredly confirm that on June 15 (only three days after we returned from our 12 days of mandatory evacuation), the Tamarron Homeowners Association offered such accommodations to the incident command.
We initially reached out to the public information teams housed in Purgatory. They declined and referred us to the head of the logistics section of the incident command structure. I also spoke with the incident commander after one of the public meetings. In all cases, our offers were declined. We were never given an official reason. (We suspect that with fewer than 200 rooms and 1,300 firefighters and responders that the math did not work.)
I would also point out that while I have no knowledge of what Purgatory management discussed with firefighters, I know that they did offer many days of refuge for folks who were forced to evacuate from Tamarron. Thank you, Purgatory, for providing a temporary home to some of our evacuees.
Eric Tibbetts President, Tamarron Homeowners Association
Durango
