Raise your Torches! Funeral pyres now an option in Colorado mountain town!!

Funeral pyres an option in Colo. mountain town

By IVAN MORENO, Associated Press Ivan Moreno, Associated Press – 47 mins ago

CRESTONE, Colo. – Belinda Ellis' farewell went as she wanted. One by one, her family placed juniper boughs and logs about her body, covered in red cloth atop a rectangular steel grate inside a brick-lined hearth. With a torch, her husband lit the fire that consumed her, sending billows of smoke into the blue-gray sky of dawn.

The outdoor funeral pyre in this southern Colorado mountain town is unique. Funeral and cremation industry officials say they are unaware of any other place in the nation that conducts open-air cremations for people regardless of religion.

[link to news.yahoo.com]