When the Marshall Fire ravaged Louisville, Superior and other parts of Boulder County on December 30, 2021, it destroyed more than a thousand homes. One family, the Kupfners, accounts for four of those losses, with every home on their family’s land completely burned away by the fire.
In 1968, the family had purchased five acres of land at the far end of West Coal Creek Drive in Superior to serve as the location for the family’s business, Superior Maintenance, and homes for multiple family members. At the time of the fire, brothers George, Phil and Rocky Kupfner lived there with their families, along with one renter and a friend, Dave Freeman.
On the morning of the fire, George’s son, George Albert Kupfner, drove in from his home in Longmont to work at Superior Maintenance, and when he arrived, he told the family of smoke he’d seen along the way. George and George Albert both drove toward Marshall Lake to check it out, and they immediately saw that the fire was on the other side of the lake. They returned home and got out the fire hoses just in case. Superior Maintenance contracts with the Town of Superior, so the family just happened to have industrial fire hoses on hand, along with access to fire hydrants in case a water main broke and they needed to clear roads afterward.
“The wind shifted direction within three to five minutes, and it came at the west-southwest corner,” George Albert remembers.
Source: Wetsword
