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Colorado is suffering from one of the worst wildfire seasons in it’s history!
I just found out tonight the 3 day old Waldo Canyon fire (I was 10 miles from where it started at on the day it started, working a dog show photography job) has not only taken its first home, but untold numbers more as it hit a housing development this evening! ‘n has evacuated the entire north-western part of the city of Colorado Springs. (Colorado second largest city, next to Denver) – I am unsure if the 5% containment that was issued earlier is still valid or not.The almost 3 week old High Park fire has taken 267 homes and over 87,000 acres (The most destructive fire in Colorado history, if the Waldo Canyon fire doesn’t catch up) and is only 55% contained (it was 60% on Fri morning, and dropped to 45% by Friday night)
There was a fire in Estes Park that burned out of control only on Saturday, but took 24 acres and 22 homes in it’s short run.
Now there is the Flagstaff fire, just outside of Boulder that is threatening the city, it started today and is (last I knew) about 223 acres but growing quickly.‘n these are the ones I’m paying attention to because I have reason to (A friends family lives near the Waldo Canyon fire. Boulder is close (though not in danger close) to my boyfriends place, and my familiys place (also out of danger) is about 20 miles from the High Park fire), there are MANY more fires in the state! I’d say it’s perfectly safe to say over 9 wildfires in the state, most likely a lot more! I’m not sure what smaller ones have been contained and which ones have not been, or even if there are new ones I just haven’t heard of yet since the High Park, Waldo Canyon and Flagstaff fires are currently at the top of the news reports.
Please pray for us! We need rain, and a lot of it! but we need rain *without lightning!* (Lightning is what started High Park and Flagstaff.) ‘n need to make sure all the fire crews and citizens remain unharmed! ‘n Hope that these fires can be contained as soon as possible! (Though they’re saying High Park and Waldo Canyon won’t be contained until the second half of July)
Thoughts and prayers are with you all and sending out wishes for rain without lightning. I hope it falls like Niagra and extinguishes all the fires threatening Colorado. Be safe!!
I hope it falls like Niagra and extinguishes all the fires threatening Colorado.
They’re talking rain today for one of the big fires (The Waldo Canyon Fire)… I hope it helps! They also mentioned though because of the fires flash flooding is a whole new problem. They just can’t win! Hopefully the rain will help put out the fire but not cause any new problems! ‘n hopefully there isn’t any strong winds with it.. the winds gusting to 65mph is what pushed the fire beyond firelines and into housing.. it’s heart wrenching to see…
I was just praying for no-lightning rain for you guys a half hour before I read this. 🙁 How awful for your state! I wish some of the rain that drowned Duluth had headed your way (I was up there on Sunday and Lake Superior is brown with mud!).
Praying for those firefighters too. Please stay safe!
Just wanted to give a quick update about the Waldo Canyon fire since I live in northern Colorado Springs and am a little too close for comfort.
The fire calmed down enough for officials to take a quick tally of the destruction, and so far 346 homes have been destroyed in the Mountain Shadows area of Colorado Springs, and the fire is over 18,000 acres in size. There are currently over 1,000 firefighters working to control it, and so far 32,000 people have been evacuated. Since the winds actually calmed down today, the firefighters were able to make progress and the fire is 10% contained (up from 5%).
Here are a couple of pictures I took from a hill close by my house:
These pictures were taken Tuesday evening when the winds really picked up and the fire exploded to three times its size. This is also when the majority of the damage done to homes happened. It was raining ash, and though the pictures don’t really show it, everything was tinted a shade of yellow-brown.
Oh wow Skylover! I didn’t realize you were SO close! I was about 10 miles away from it when it started, working at a dog show photography job… I had really hoped they’d be able to control it before it did any major damage ‘n was heart broken when I heard Tues night that it jumped a major fire line n went into a housing development… Now with the total number of houses destroyed, Waldo canyon has taken place as the most destructive fire in the history of Colorado with it’s 347 houses destroyed, and sadly today have heard one of death, and has burned 16,750 acres. The site I check up on about the fire say’s its now 15% contained.
The previously most destructive as far as homes goes (and second largest fire in Colorado History) is the still burning High Park fire. I believe it’s number is 269 houses that they know of so far. It also has killed one person, and has burned 87,284 acres. It is *thankfully* now 85% contained. This is the one that has been close to where I live, though completely out of harms way for me, just heart breaking to watch… They are hoping to have full containment by the end of the weekend!
Flagstaff fire, which was threatening the city of Boulder I believe is no longer a large threat (It’s a lil harder to get news on this one since the other two large fires tend to take over the news stories) it is at 300 acres, I do not think it has taken any homes, ‘n is 40% contained with hopes to have it also fully contained by the end of the weekend.
There are still many more fires and a lot more risk! Colorado has been getting rain, but with rain comes lightning and lightning is what started High Park and Flagstaff (and many small, quickly contained fires around the Flagstaff fire)
Colorado rain dances have been working though! 🙂 ‘n the rain truly does seem to be helping, after a 3-4 days of getting rain (Have you been getting rain down there Skylover? I’ve been watching the radar closely, hoping those storms are moving over where they need to be!), there have been big leaps to the containment of a couple of these fires. ~ Now we just have to hope we can get through 4th of July without some rule breaking idiot starting a new one with fireworks!
Well, I do have good news to report. Thanks to a couple days with very little wind, a good amount of progress has been made on the Waldo Canyon fire. It hasn’t increased in size and is now 25% contained. Several evacuees (I don’t know the exact numbers) were also able to go home late last night. Throughout today, things looked really calm. There were only a few small hot spots that I could see. I did have some concern during the afternoon when it looked like it was flaring again, but that was the firefighters using a controlled burn to create a perimeter on the north-western end of the fire. All in all, it’s been a good 24 hours.
We did get some rain on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. They were just short showers that didn’t last long though. The main thing is that the winds didn’t pick up.
The sad news to report is that they were looking for someone related to the person who was found dead, and found that person’s remains in the house as well, so we now have two deaths from this fire. They’re still investigating what happened.
…and now we’ve officially been declared a disaster area, so now we can get federal funding to help with our various fire-fighting efforts across the state.
And speaking of other fires, I was made aware that there is also another one near Ft. Collins that is already over 10,000 acres. It’s feeling like our entire state is on fire…
Do you have a name on the other fire near Ft Collins? We got smoked out pretty bad today, so I’ve been wondering if there is another fire or something.. but I haven’t been able to find *anything* on another fire up here. But some fires are impossible to find info on!
That is so sad that 2 people have died in Waldo Canyon 🙁 but at least there is some good news in better containment!
It’s good that you’ve gotten some rain, don’t want to get too much cause then it becomes a flash flood issue, which is really prone to burn areas… ‘n even though there may not be a lot of rain making it to the ground, humidity will help a bit as well! So hopefully more of that will come so the firefighters have some help and moisture, but not so much that they have to fight a fire and flood!
My mistake. Sorry I’m tired. The fire I was talking about is the Pine Ridge fire and it is east of Grand Junction near I-70. It got large really fast, and is now starting to get attention: http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_20971965
This website appears to give some good information on all of the fires even though the information may be a bit outdated: http://gacc.nifc.gov/rmcc/links/fire_info/index.html
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