Fire destroys Monument home

An early morning fire in Monument sent four members of a family to the hospital and destroyed their residence in the Chisolm Ranch area of Woodmoor where homes worth more than a half million dollars sit on acre-sites.

A man and woman and two young children jumped out the second-story window, said battalion Chief Mike Dooley of the Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Protection District.

A teenage daughter may have escaped through a door, neighbors said.

The family members were transported by ambulance and a medical helicopter to local hospitals.

"They will be OK," said Bob Falcon, a fire investigator for El Paso County Sheriff's Department.

Neighbors identified the family living there as the Sharps. Richard Sharp is listed as owner of the home on True Vista Circle, according to the El Paso County Assessor database.

"It's the worst fire I have ever seen. I don't know how they got out alive," said next-door neighbor Dan Orlofsky, who awoke to the commotion.

"The older girl was in the street screaming, ‘My family is trapped. My family is trapped.'"

Orlofsky and his wife, Sherry, ran over with blankets to wrap around the family.

"They seemed OK," he said. He said Sharp had tried to jump from the window into an adjacent tree, but fell short.  The others jumped to the ground.

The Orlofskys feared their house would be engulfed in flames if the pines between their homes caught fire, so they packed their two dogs into their car in case they had to leave quickly.

Some of the neighbors are going to contact the American Red Cross and also try to help the family out since the charred ruins indicated not much was left, said another neighbor, whose daughter is acquainted with one of the family's children.

The fire is still under investigation, Falcon said.