NEDERLAND, Colo. — It’s been a tough week for the small mountain town of Nederland, but amid the ashes, hope is taking root.
The Caribou Village Shopping Center fire has destroyed more than 30% of the town’s businesses, but now, neighbors, local businesses, and volunteers are coming together to help turn heartbreak into action.
Nederland is the kind of place where neighbors feel more like family, said Dan Vollmer, a local realtor with Berkshire Hathaway who launched a GoFundMe campaign for the town.
“I’ve been up here a handful of years," Vollmer said. "You really start to call this place home after about two."
As the fire tore through the heart of Nederland last week, Vollmer captured the devastation in real time on his phone.
“I got woken up around 3:50-ish in the morning. I really just heard some pops and was like, ‘Whoa – what’s going on?’” he recalled. “It’s just insane."
Vollmer didn’t just document the flames; he turned his footage and experience into a lifeline.
“Within minutes of that – I had a few other people reach out and say, ‘We need to get funding to these people, we need to get them some help,’” he said.
As smoke still billowed the next morning, kindness rolled in.
Jason Bullis, a Gilpin County resident, said the support was immediate and strong.
“I think everybody’s going to pull together and help your neighbor out,” Bullis said.
The GoFundMe campaign has since neared $200,000, supporting 18 businesses and about 100 employees - a workforce Nederland can’t afford to lose.
“That workforce, we can’t replace that once that’s gone,” Vollmer said.
But the generosity goes beyond dollars. It’s about showing up — in every way possible.
“One of my friends - she jumped into action right away and said – if anyone needs to borrow my washer and dryer, after the laundromat had burned down," Vollmer said. "Her husband even said, ‘Hey, we have a spare bedroom if anyone is in need.’”
Out of the ashes, neighbors — or more accurately, family — are proving that hope burns brighter than all else here.
“It’s just no void is left,” Vollmer added. “We’re so close-knit. Everybody takes care of everybody else.”
In Nederland, the flames may have tested the town, but the community is showing there’s always a path forward, no matter the scope of the tragedy.
The Boulder County Sheriff's Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, and the Division of Fire Prevention and Control are working together to determine the origin and cause of the fire.
