Colorado Wildfires

[Galaril]

SO, I live about 30 miles north of of wildfire that is currently now starting to burn om the south western corner of the US Air Force Academy and has already claimed 20, 000 acres of land and hundreds of homes. We are now into the fifth straight day of record breaking heat and not much relief in sight. I can not overestimate the courage of the fire fighters battling this monster and the dozen other fires in the straight but thanks goes out to them none the less.





Colorado wildfire spreads, threatens Air Force Academy - Yahoo! News

[Rizon]

The flaming bars in the background of that picture ... are those ... trees burning on a hillside?

[Galaril]

Yes or at least what's left them.

[Rizon]

Man that's a serious OMG WTF

[tarcone]

Yeah. Its approaching Colorado Springs. Manitou Sprins, which is on the NW side of Colorado Springs was evacuated on Sunday. The Firefighters kept the fires from the Garden of the Gods.
I have relatives in Colorado Springs. But they are on the other side of town.

Scary stuff.

[Chief Rum]

My GF's parents live on the west side of Colorado Springs, so I have been following this story avidly since my GF brought it up on Sunday. She showed me pictures her parents took from their porch of the fire approaching the higher end Cedar Heights neighborhood. Looked pretty close to me.

This is hitting home for her. She has all sorts of memories out there in areas the fire is affecting, and that's above and beyond her worry for her parents, or for losing her childhood home. I have been praying the firefighters will get this one under control.

[gkb]

We could really use several days of clouds and rain. Man it's dry here.

[tarcone]

I just saw on the news that they evacuated the Air Force Academy. That is pretty close to some of my relatives.

[RomaGoth]

Wow that is wicked. We were looking at moving to that area in 2009. Glad we didn't.

My prayers are with all of you who live near there.

[Buccaneer]

We live about 5 miles from the fire. Been very hot, dry and smoky. So sad to see the eruptions in the northwest part of town. It was almost like watching a huge bomb go off about 4:30 yesterday.

[Galaril]

[molson]

A lot of western states could be seeing similar stuff later this summer. I know some that are already kind of freaking out about it in Idaho.

[tarcone]

Is Bucc ok? A women who lived near the fires said the fire spread a mile in like 5 minutes. I wonder if Bucc had to evacuate.

[Chief Rum]

I don't want to speak for Bucc, but I am guessing no. The area where the evacuations are in are all closer than five miles in to the fire, and Bucc said he was five miles out.

But, yes, I would like to see him check in, too. I also haven't heard yet about my GF's parents. I think they're okay. My GF is under the weather right now so communication hasn't been very steady, but if her parents were in trouble or had to evacuate, she would have let me know. And they were closer to the fire than Bucc, distance-wise.

[Buccaneer]

Doing fine, thank you. They had a good day yesterday and there has been no further expansion that I'm aware of. We're still awaiting word on some of my colleagues on whether they lost their homes. About 300 were burned.

[RomaGoth]

Is there any improvement in the control of these fires yet?

[Buccaneer]

Yes, good progress was made yesterday and today. The fire exploded to 3x its size in a matter of hours on Tuesday but very little acreage were added since then. I think it's at 10% contained right now. It also looks like 346 homes were lost, making it the most costly fire in state history.

[EagleFan]

Shouldn't have traded Tebow...

[Jacob Typer]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Shouldn't have traded Tebow...

Too soon...

[thealmighty]

Flew over Colorado last evening. The fires are crazy, even at 37000 feet.

[Dodgerchick]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Yes, good progress was made yesterday and today. The fire exploded to 3x its size in a matter of hours on Tuesday but very little acreage were added since then. I think it's at 10% contained right now. It also looks like 346 homes were lost, making it the most costly fire in state history.

My friend's son went out there on vacation and his dad was one of the ones who lost their home. They're currently living in a shelter... but are alive and well.

Very, very scary. Stay safe Bucc and thoughts and prayers for some rain.

[Buccaneer]

Thank you. It's going to be a bit hotter and drier this weekend but I think they got a good handle on the perimter (at least south and east sides towards populated areas). Still quite a bit of fuel left to burn inside the perimeter though.

[EagleFan]

How big of an area has it reached?

[gkb]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

How big of an area has it reached?

Here's a link to the Denver Post's wildire info: Colorado Wildfires - The Denver Post

As of Friday night, the wildfire had burned 17,033 acres and was 25 percent contained. The cost of fighting the blaze has risen to $6.9 million. Nearly 1,300 people are battling the wildfire that started a week ago.

[Buccaneer]

45% contained right now including all of the perimeters toward the populated areas. You can't imagine what it was like to have a firestorm right in your own city.

[sterlingice]

On NPR, they were talking to someone describing how it was going extremely fast from mountain to valley to mountain again with 60mph winds and dry timber. I can't imagine how frightening that would be to see.

SI