Mom, daughter killed in flash flood were gathered with family at site of Cameron Peak Fire
What was supposed to be a reunion of sorts after the 2020 Cameron Peak Fire burned their beloved cabin tucked above Buckhorn Canyon instead turned into tragedy as Friday's flash flood left two members of one family dead.
The Larimer County Coroner's Office on Monday evening identified the two who were swept away and drowned in the muddy flood waters as Lisa Schilling, 36, and her daughter Liliana Arguello, 12, both of Littleton.
Annette Vasquez, Schilling's sister-in-law, wrote in a GoFundMe fundraising post that the family finally had been able to arrange for members to bring their camper trailers to the property last week for the first time since the fire.
Part of the family arrived Wednesday at their property, she wrote, and others came Friday afternoon as the rain was starting. It rained hard and the creek rose "a few inches'' in a short amount of time. Then the rain passed and the family was thankful for it to be over.
Then tragedy struck.
"Then this loud rumble of a cracking sound was heard, and we looked up the creek to see a mountain of trees, rocks, mud and water rushing toward us,'' she wrote. "In a moment, the trailer where Lisa, Lily and their two dogs were, was swept away and overtaken by the rush of the flood.''
According to the Larimer County Sheriff's Office, around 5 p.m. it started receiving reports of flooding. The mother and daughter were found just more than a half-mile from their property on Calcite Court at 7:30 p.m., the Larimer County Sheriff's Office told the Coloradoan.
The property is about 2 miles south of Buckhorn Creek near Crystal Mountain, where Sheep Creek also destroyed a home during the flood on Granite Road.
Vasquez said she and other members of the family, including Aaron Arguello, Schilling's husband and Vazquez's brother, were rescued from the property later that evening.
She wrote Schilling was an elementary teacher at Jefferson County Public Schools and Arguello was a student at Deer Creek Middle School and would have celebrated her 13th birthday July 27.
"Our Land, as we called it, was a place we would spend our summers,'' Vasquez wrote. "It was a place we grew up; it was a place we both introduced our spouses to. We created our own families, and our kids like us grew up here. This place was special; it was our therapy. We could spend countless hours together uninterrupted by technology, phone calls or the city's life.''
As of 7 p.m. Monday, the GoFundMe site had raised nearly $14,000 of its $25,000 goal.
There were no other reported injuries, according to officials.
More: Buckhorn resident escapes floodOne minute Kirk Hawks was going for bolt cutters and the next he was nearly swept away.
Reporter Miles Blumhardt looks for stories that impact your life. Be it news, outdoors, sports — you name it, he wants to report it. Have a story idea? Contact him at milesblumhardt@coloradoan.com or on Twitter @MilesBlumhardt.
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This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Buckhorn Canyon flash flood victims identified as Littleton mom, girl
