Up in Smoke

Irv, Mr. Beans, and I headed up to Fort Collins earlier this week for the state 4-H horse bowl contest.  There's a huge forest fire to the west of Fort Collins, the High Park fire.  So far this is the costliest fire in Colorado history.  Last I heard there were 191 homes lost, the cost of the fire is around $20 million and the size of the fire has grown to 81,000 acres.  The town has been invaded by fire fighters.
I was really touched by the signs people had put in their yards thanking the firefighters.

People were even lining the streets as the fire crews came back into town in the evening on their way to the fire camp.  I thought that was really cool.  My dad was in the US Forest Service and he went to many fires during my childhood.   I remember him coming home totally exhausted. 

In addition to it being very dry, it has also been unusually hot.  I was in Denver with friends today to see The Addams Family musical and when we left the theatre it was 108 degrees.  108 in June?  That just doesn't happen in Colorado.

As we were driving back into Colorado Springs after the show, the sky was full of smoke.  Our initial thought was that it was the Springer Fire that has been burning about 20 miles west of town.  Then we realized this fire was much closer.

Apparently, the Waldo Canyon Fire started this afternoon.  Irv and I hiked Waldo Canyon a couple years ago and it was an exhausting 7 mile hike.  They had to evacuate the hiking trail when the fire started and I can't even imagine what it would be like to have to hike out of that trail quickly because of a fire.  It's on the west side of Colorado Springs and they've started evacuating some neighborhoods in that area.  Brian and Jilllian are camping out by Estes Park and we just heard about a fire that started there today, but Jillian called to say they were safe and out of harms way.

Seeing these forest fires in the mountains makes me glad we don't live in a wooded area, but I realize we've just been extremely lucky not to have had any grass fires on the eastern prairies so far this summer.

We need rain!

Comments

Yogi♪♪♪ said…
Nice pics,

Those fires are expensive.
June 24, 2012 at 7:04 AM
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