Christopher Cawdrey was eating lunch at his remote home in far northern Larimer County when he noticed smoke coming over the hill in the direction of his neighbor’s house.
Once outside, he could see the house was on fire and quickly called 911.
The dispatcher asked his location and other critical questions, then asked if would be willing to livestream video from his cellphone of what he was seeing.
He agreed, and the dispatcher texted him a link. He clicked on the link and was able to walk around the burning home to show the dispatcher the fire in real time. The dispatcher relayed the video to emergency responders who could better assess the scene.
Because the house fire was near the Wyoming border, 90 minutes from Fort Collins, firefighters couldn’t save the home.