LOUISVILLE, Colo. — Pretty much everything left from Frank Lavrisha's old house after the Marshall Fire fits along the side wall of the garage of his rental these days.
There's both trash – planks from his back fence and assorted cabinet knobs – and treasures – alpine bells handed down for generations and a cross once mounted on the wall, recovered from the rubble and ash of his basement.
"When the fire happened, it was like 'What do we save? What survived?'" Lavrisha said. "You got to hang on to what little that was left, but then it makes it so precious."
Some of the remnants sit in two five-gallon buckets in his garage. With six more buckets, Lavrisha hopes to save something else.
Almost every day, Lavrisha sets six buckets on his front lawn and fills them up with a garden hose. Then the retired volleyball coach carries the 30 gallons to his red van and drives back to his old lot.
"It’s something that we want to hang on to because there’s not much else left," he explained as he traipsed across the mud of his lot, buckets in hand toward a tree where his backyard used to be.
The tree is a Colorado blue spruce, Lavrisha explained, and the only thing left standing where his home used to be. "This is the one that survived so we got to hang on to this one," he said.
The Louisville arborist gave it a 50-50 shot at survival, he said. When he heard that he knew he needed to do everything he could to help the tree pull through. That's why he carries buckets of water every day.
"Maybe my strength is the persistence," he said. "So I think it’s part of my character."
In about nine months, he estimates his new home will be fully rebuilt on the same lot where he lived for 19 years. He doesn't plan to give up on the tree then, just maybe build a sprinkler system to avoid the bucket routine.
For now, Lavrisha said saving the tree is worth the workout -- even if there's still more work to do.
"I can’t wait to put a house with it," he said, looking back at the tree. "I think it’ll look better with a house in front of it."
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