Cheryl Anselmo can still see Terry DeVore suiting up and describing the voracious brush fire sweeping toward Ordway moments before he left to battle the blaze.
Hours later, the Olney Springs town clerk was there when DeVore’s mother, Deborah, received a text message from her husband telling her to meet him at their son’s home.
“I just knew. I put my head down and started praying,” Anselmo said Wednesday.
Terry DeVore, 30, worked at the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility and was a member of the Olney Springs Volunteer Fire Department.
DeVore’s wife, Jennifer, also is a guard at the prison. They have four children, from 4 to 9 years old.
Terry DeVore had served with the fire department for 10 years and recently was elected fire chief.
DeVore “was very proud of being the fire chief. He loved the town, and he wanted to make improvements for fire safety,” Anselmo said.
DeVore’s mother is the mayor of Olney Springs, a rural hamlet with a population of about 300. His father, Bruce, also is a volunteer firefighter and rode in another vehicle to battle the inferno that forced the evacuation of nearby Ordway.
Deborah DeVore remembers that as a child, her son wanted to be a firefighter or a police officer.
“He was never afraid of anything; there was no sense of fear,” she said. “He loved helping people. He was always making jokes, pulling pranks on people. He just loved life.”
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
