Colorado fires

[SixShooter'00Camaro]

Have any of you seen on the news or read in the papers of the fires we have here in Colorado? If you haven't, we currently have eight wild fires burning Colorado right now. Having been born, raised and lived here my whole life it hurts my heart to see this on the news, to see the smoke from the mountains and be able to smell it everyday. To make things worse today was the fifth day in a row we have had 100+ temps and we haven't seen rain in weeks, which is not normal for this time of the year. Here is a link to a local news station site http://www.9news.com/ and here is a link to CBS news with alot of info if you care to read. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-...s-in-a-decade/. A friend of my dad who has spent the last 10 years building his dream home in Estes Park (where the High Park fire is) was evacuated a few weeks ago and has no idea if his house is still there, I also have a few friends that live in Colorado Springs (where the Waldo Canyon fire is) that told me that Interstate-25 got shut down due to the fire and many people were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic and they were not able to go to their homes before evacuation started. The other day C-130's got approval to help contain the fires. I really hope we get some rain and lower temps to help the firefighters get these fires under control at least. Here is some pictures my friends took and sent to me.

[SixShooter'00Camaro]

Re: Colorado fires

Taken by photographers




Docta, I hope the fire in the Springs doesn't head your way bro.




Please keep Colorado in your thoughts and or prayers.

[2.8 Bird]

Re: Colorado fires

Those pics are almost surreal. It sucks to see those houses burning.

I think all the pyro-maniacs here in California went to Colorado. Stay safe and hopefully they get this under control soon.

[Docta]

Re: Colorado fires


Taken up the street from my house.

On the way to my parents, about 15 miles away.

Third night in a row of red skies...
Basically I live 3 miles from the evacuated area, just east of I25&Garden if the Gods, right by UCCS. I spent last night moving back to my parents house out east, word is 33k+ evac'd, 10,000 acres 5% contained. They're saying at least mid July before it's contained..

How close are you to the one up north?

[Skinny]

Re: Colorado fires

Wish I could send you some of the rain we've been getting in north Florida. Flood damage here. :(

[adrummer02L78]

Re: Colorado fires

wow.... literally just wow...

[ssms5411]

Re: Colorado fires

Looks pretty bad.

[SixShooter'00Camaro]

Re: Colorado fires

Docta, not close, Im outside of Brighton. I hope all is well man. Skinny, me too we would gladly take it.

We did get some rain today, none in Colorado Springs that I know of and not nearly enough at all. I wish it would just down pour across the whole state for days.

[Docta]

Re: Colorado fires

Its pretty bad, honestly... plus sides, last night there was no new areas burned, I couldn't even smell smoke or see the fire from 5 miles away. Its officially burned one historic location, a small neighborhood, and I think close to 200 structures. We did get a small amount of rain as well.

[Shodown]

Re: Colorado fires

They tasked my unit to fight the fires with MAFFS (and 2 from CO Springs). Hell yeah for the 187th AS Cowboys! :D

[Opontee]

Re: Colorado fires

I wish it would just down pour across the whole state for days.

Probably not really, then you have to deal with mud slides. I pray for enough rain to extinguish the fires for you guys.

Those are probably worse than the ones we had in Texas last year.

[dgreet77]

Re: Colorado fires

I'm curious if any of you have gotten close enough to see if they are letting all of their ground resources actually work on getting the fire put out, protecting structures, building line, etc?

Just had a fire ~4 miles from my house that went from 800 acres to over 4000 in a day because they (the type 3 IC that came from out of the area, works for the BLM) wouldn't let anybody (BLM, State Forestry, County, or Volunteer) work on the fire. Ended up burning about 1200 acres of pasture for our cattle, which is very important to us, and also ended up threatening a neighbors house (which, by the way, they wouldn't let anybody defend).

I'm just curious if they are doing this to anybody else around the country or not. If it is, then there is going to be a ****storm of pissed off people, which have every right to be. I really wouldn't be surprised if most of the fires around the country could have been stopped sooner than they have been.

[youngsc]

Re: Colorado fires

Simple explanation is damned if you damned if you don't. If they don't let people back in then you hope there's insurance to cover but it prevents loss of life nearly guaranteed. People will be pissed they couldn't at least try to fight to save their property and somehow hold back a wildfire. However if you do let them in then the potential increase in loss of life would greatly increase and then people would be pissed that the officials didn't lock the area down better. No liability waiver in the world would prevent the onslaught of lawsuits from family members if they lost a loved one.

As for officials not, apparently, doing more well due to the accidental loss of one of the Air Force MAFFS flights they have ceased operations for the moment. It wouldn't surprise me if they deemed it to dangerous for ground forces and allowed property and land to burn to save lives. If they can control the perimeter rather than attack the front lines they might decide that's a better strategy.

I haven't followed the stories too much to know but what they do here in Florida to tackle large fires is set controlled burns in the surrounding areas. Seems counter intuitive but if you can preemptively burn the fuel the fire needs to live and force it into a predictable direction it's easier to concentrate all your forces for the fight.

Sucks to lose property and memories but I'm sure all of us would rather that then losing friends or family.

[dgreet77]

Re: Colorado fires

I know the reasons for not fighting a fire. I'm not saying the average folks in CO should all stay home with their garden hoses. What I am saying is the IC we had here was (to put it nicely) extremely risk averse. Also they cannot make you evacuate your property, they can only strongly suggest it.

Burnouts and backfires have been common firefighting strategy for years, although I've seen just as many fail and be unproductive as I've seen be successful.

What I'm referring to is if they let anybody build any line at all at the start of the fire, and if they still are or not. I also noticed in the posted photographs that there was zero structure protection at all, not even just a lookout. Anyways; wildfire fighters rarely attack straight into the head of the fire, if ever at all. But as I've seen it lately, they won't even let anybody attack it in general until they get their paperwork done and stare at it for 3 hours. Anyways I'm just wondering if the loss of property could have been preempted is all.