CANYON CITY — James Dunn, an active-duty airman, was coming home from Michigan, where he is stationed, when he heard about the Canyon Creek Complex fire.

On Thursday, Highway 26 was closed at Ontario, so he stayed the night there.

He came home Friday, but the first time he was able to see the Canyon City home, where his wife Judy lives, was last Sunday.

“We lost a shop, and it burned 3 inches from the house,” he said. “It burned around the house, but did not take the house.”

“There’s no words to describe the devastation,” he said. “The past 30 years, they haven’t logged or cleared, and won’t let us graze cattle — it worked all those previous years.”