CNN) -- It was like a scene from a big-budget Hollywood disaster movie -- a Godzilla of a fire roaring down the mountain, straight toward Brandon Hanson's Colorado Springs neighborhood.

Winds gusting at 65 mph pushed the fire over a ridge and sent it roaring into the city. Suddenly, a blaze in the mountains threatened to consume homes and businesses and change lives.

Hanson, 29, snapped a photo from his driveway of the thick plumes of smoke, some spiking as high as 20,000 feet, and sent it in to CNN iReport.

He'd just moved to Colorado Springs in April with his wife, Maria. Now their new house, their new life, was in peril."It's a lot worse than we thought "   Report a map error
Hanson packed up his Nissan Rogue. Paperwork, passports, pictures. And baby things for Xavier, their 1-month-old son.

Every hotel room in Colorado Springs was already occupied, so he kept driving south on Interstate 25 to Pueblo