PENROSE — Macy May has anxiously slept half awake at night in her rural Penrose home as she awaited a pre-evacuation warning to possibly be upgraded to an evacuation order for the 24 fire that began on Wednesday.

She and her four children, ages 7 to 15, live with their three dogs and 40 birds, mostly chickens, in a ranchland area of the town’s northwest side that was under a pre-evacuation order until Monday. Together, they opened a small community farm stand in a shed in October to sell homemade foods and goods, but it was closed for the first time because of the order.

Instead of going to the shed, neighbors began stopping by the May’s residence for a “better view” of the fire’s flames, which led to hazy skies on Tuesday.

Firefighting crews from across the region have been battling to keep the 7,385-acre fire, which is 30% contained, to the east of Colorado 115 on Fort Carson land and away from homes to the west. Their work allowed officials to lift an evacuation order and a pre-evacuation order on Monday ahead of more dangerous fire conditions forecast for Wednesday and Thursday.

“When they lifted the pre-evacuation, I was like, ‘God, thank you so much,'” May told The Gazette. “The first thing I thought was at least I’m not going to worry about my animals now, and I can go back to what I love to do.”

Without a trailer and her husband, who is deployed with special forces, the best chance of survival for the Mays’ animals in an evacuation order would be to open their gates and hope they make it, unless neighbors stepped in to help.

May is keeping her fingers crossed that the fire conditions do not worsen, as she fears losing everything she has put her heart into and her family’s livelihood becoming nothing more than memories. She hopes she and her children, whom she described as her “besties”, can keep the stand they made for the community to be open for the foreseeable future.

“We don’t want anything to happen to our beautiful Penrose,” May said with smoke from the 24 fire rising behind her. “The world has so much chaos going on right now, and this is the only little haven we have with our kids and our family to keep us safe and sane.”

Residents previously under the orders voiced similar anxieties about the 24 fire at a town hall meeting at the city’s elementary school on Tuesday. Most of them had never seen Colorado 115 shut down for a fire or faced the threat of a wildfire burning their property.

Around 100 of the unincorporated town’s 4,000 residents listened to officials talk about the fire for an hour from chairs lined on the gym floor and in the bleachers. Many complained into a microphone during a question-and-answer period about limited communication and newly available information.

Fort Carson Assistant Fire Chief Peter Wolf took the blame for the miscommunication and said different messages from separate agencies were turned into a “hodgepodge” on social media.

Numerous town hall attendees also told The Gazette they were unaware of the county’s emergency alert system that issues evacuation notices and instead relied on friends texting or posting on social media for updates.

“There should have been a meeting like this earlier, not almost a week after,” said Monica Graham, a longtime Penrose resident who lives across the street from the pre-evacuation zone.

All of the agencies involved in battling the blaze met on Sunday to discuss the best way to communicate with those impacted by the fire and ultimately decided to hold the town hall on Tuesday, Wolf said.

Despite disagreements about communication, the room united in applause when a resident used part of his time asking a question to thank the firefighters who have been on the front lines.

More firefighting crews have arrived to fight the 24 fire along rough mountainous terrain, bringing the total to 240 personnel, including hotshot teams from six states.

Firefighters are also dealing with numerous 6 to 8-foot-tall and wide piles that were slated for prescribed burns during the winter, but the right conditions to do so never occurred, Wolf said.

The fire entered its seventh day of burning along Colorado 115 after a vehicle “malfunctioned,” pulled over and then ignited the surrounding grass, according to Wolf. He could not clarify how the vehicle set the grass on fire, which is still being investigated.

Firefighters will face “another test” as the week progresses with elevated fire danger and a cold front coming on Thursday, according to Wolf.

“Cold fronts are always a challenge, and there have been a lot of fires that have gone haywire because of a cold front passage,” he said.

Firefighting resources will remain in the area through the week, and, ideally, conditions may allow Colorado 115 to be reopened on Friday.

However, Wolf said there are still burned trees to cut down and rocks to clear from on and around the roadway to reopen it. Colorado 115 is a direct highway from the town to Fort Carson and Colorado Springs, and its closure has forced commuters to reroute through Pueblo County.