I have seen many fires in my life but this one is a BEAST that has burnt down about 300 houses. They even forecast high winds and Thunderstroms tomorrow
WOODLAND PARK, Colo. (AP) — More than 2,100 residents were being evacuating from the Air Force Academy's grounds Tuesday night as heavy smoke billowed from a wildfire that has burned homes near Colorado Springs.
The academy was telling families to leave two main housing areas, but an area of the 28-square-mile campus that houses cadets wasn't immediately evacuated. A new class of cadets is still scheduled to report on Thursday.
Fire officials had issued a pre-evacuation notice for the academy earlier Tuesday. El Paso County sheriff's officials have ordered an estimated 32,000 people to leave.
Fire information officer Greg Heule said earlier Tuesday that the fire was less than five miles from the southwest corner of the Air Force Academy's campus.
Television images showed homes burning, and the Flying W Ranch southwest of the academy said on its website that the ranch had burned to the ground.
The fire has burned several homes, but Colorado Springs Fire Chief Richard Brown said "many, many homes" also have been saved.
Meanwhile, authorities in central Utah found one woman dead Tuesday when they returned to an evacuated area, marking the first casualty in a blaze that consumed at least two dozen homes and appears to be taking a turn for the worst.
Throughout the interior West, firefighters toiled in searing, record-setting heat that refused to relinquish its grip, as they struggled to contain blazes in Colorado, Utah and other Rocky Mountain states Tuesday.
Colorado has endured nearly a week of 100-plus-degree days and low humidity, sapping moisture from timber and grass, creating a devastating formula for volatile wildfires across the state and punishing conditions for firefighters.
"When it's that hot, it just dries the fuels even more. That can make the fuels explosive," said Steve Segin, a fire spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.
All of Utah and much of Wyoming, Colorado and Montana were under a red flag warning, meaning conditions were hot, dry and ripe for fires.
Tuesday was the fifth consecutive day with temperatures of 100 degrees or higher in Denver, tying a record set in 2005 and 1989. On Monday, Denver set a record with 105 degrees. The previous record for June 25 was 100 degrees in 1991.
Other areas of the state also topped 100 degrees Tuesday, including the northeastern Colorado town of Wray, which hit 108, the National Weather Service said.
What the nation is now seeing is "a super-heated spike on top of a decades long warming trend," said Derek Arndt, head of climate monitoring at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.
The U.S. set 107 new temperature records Monday and in the past week has set 782 of them, which are large numbers but hard to put in context because the data center has only been tracking the number of daily records broken for little more than a year, Arndt said.
But what's truly impressive, Arndt said, is that in the past three days in Colorado and Kansas, nine sites have set records regardless of the date. Usually hottest-ever marks are set in the scorching months of July and August.
The scorching heat doesn't appear to be letting up soon. Segin said such prolonged heat is "extremely taxing" physically on firefighters, who are working long days and carrying heavy gear.
Television video from the 7-square-mile Waldo Canyon fire west of Colorado Springs, Colo., showed smoke and flames close to houses in a forested neighborhood northwest of Colorado Springs.
The fire was 5 percent contained.
Two specially equipped Air Force C-130 cargo planes were helping fight the fire, and a third was expected later in the day.
With the nation's privately owned fleet of heavy air tankers already in use or unavailable, U.S. Forest Chief Tom Tidwell said his agency had to call on the military to help.
Tidwell told The Associated Press in a phone interview Monday that about half of the nation's personnel who are usually assigned to large fires are working in Colorado right now.
"It's just because it's so dry," Tidwell said. "Not unlike New Mexico — they saw very low snowpack, especially in that lower country. Hot, dry winds with dry fuels, you get the ignition, and this is what we see."
At the 136-square-mile High Park fire in northern Colorado, authorities increased the number of homes destroyed to 257, saying they found nine homes that hadn't been counted earlier. The total was already the highest of any wildfire in state history.
That fire was 55 percent contained.
In Utah, Sanpete County sheriff's officials haven't identified the body found or explained where the remains were found Tuesday morning while assessing damage in the area.
On Tuesday morning, officials announced that the 60-square-mile Wood Hollow Fire was 15 percent contained and lifted some evacuation orders amid predictions they'd contain the blaze even further. But winds fanned the flames again by afternoon, forcing authorities to shut down part of U.S. 89 near Indianola amid fears that the fire would jump the highway.
Evacuations were called for Fairview, a town of about 1,100 residents near the blaze, as the fire grew larger and more erratic.
This is what happens when the government decides to stop controlled logging. Forests get overgrown, and some idiot or mothernature starts fires. Its like an every year occurance in Arizona. I'm used to "Biggest fire in history" "Burned xxx,xxx amount of acres". My dad said in about the 70's and 80's the government was pressured to stop controlled logging. Its a side effect that hurts the residents of these communities.
Ya i live a bit northeast of the Hyde Park fire near Ft.collins/loveland and there is litterally a layer of ash on my car every morning. If you want to help in some way many local businesses are taking donations for the american red cross, or even valueable items such as bottled water, clothing, ect to help those affected by the fires. I know SamsClubs/Walmarts are accepting donations and sending shipments of goods out to the places affected.
Jokeingly of corse it seems the 3 places I despise the most out of colorado are on fire though: Ft Collins/Boulder/ Colorado Springs. Let the fire cleanes them!
But really its been way too dry and my heart really does go out to those affected and those brave ones who are trying to stop the spread of these fires.
Its so surreal seeing this massive cloud of black smoke cover the entire city. My friends and boss had to evacuate because of this fire. This weather has not helped at all either. Worst time ever to move down to Colorado Springs.
Second since I actually live in Colorado Springs, I feel like I should give some people some updates.
Basically our town is separated into two sections: west of highway 25 and east of highway 25. The west part is the richer part of town and generally has higher value houses, but has less businesses than in the east. Right now the fire is contained to 5%, but the fire shifted earlier today to hit a lot more of Colorado Springs than originally expected. As a result, a large portion of the area west of I25 has been evacuated. The fire is especially bad towards the north west part of the city (I have friends who have taken pictures of it, will post in a bit), and right now firefighters aren't optimistic about stopping it any time soon.
Another factor that has really caused more troubles is the record heat we've been having. Every day for the week prior to the fire, it was over 100 degrees outside and since Colorado Springs has no humidity to begin with (0%), everything is pretty freakin' dry here. So, when the fire started it spread a lot faster than originally expected, and continued to burn. The biggest shock as I said earlier was the fact it gained so much ground earlier today. Hopefully the fighters can do something about it.
I live in Colorado Springs as well. I work over at the USAF Academy on active duty which is under evacuation order and is closed for the 27th. Hopefully the fire doesn't spread onto the Academy itself. I'm a little bit east of it though if it pushes towards I-25 I may need to evacuate too
250+ homes burned in northern colorado and over 80k acres so far and its not controlled. The colorado springs fire is the 2nd major fire going now. Its getting a little surreal.
On June 27 2012 15:44 Synwave wrote: 250+ homes burned in northern colorado and over 80k acres so far and its not controlled. The colorado springs fire is the 2nd major fire going now. Its getting a little surreal.
As I mentioned in my post, there is also a growing one in the Boulder area.
My mom commutes to Fort Collins for work, so she saw a lot of the effects of the one near there. US 287 was covered in smoke, apparently.
I'm going down to the greater Denver area and Boulder in a couple of weeks (11-12 hour drive =\), will be interesting to really see some of the aftermath during my open time after work.
. . .
Theres a couple of small ones in Montana right now.
This evening, the wind blew the smoke a couple hundred miles to the point that the visability dropped from unlimited to like 10-20 miles or so. It's impressive what these fires are capable of =\
Back home in Wyoming, I'm honestly surprised we haven't had a wildfire near our house in the 10-15 years we have lived there (near medicine bow national forest), or even the pass between Laramie and Cheyenne (Happy Jack / Veadauwoo).
Only wildfire I've somewhat experienced, but it was under control / being controlled, was some years ago up at the Green River Lakes near Pinedale and a brush fire of some sort north of Casper last year.
It actually is pretty worrysome, this is certainly a bad year, and summer has only begun. We have a long way to go until November when snow actually starts to fall and temperatures really begin to cool.
Friend of mine put up some pics. Natural disasters are always awe-inspiring. And yes, I consider wildfire to be a natural disaster, you don't need humans to start a wildfire.
On June 27 2012 15:44 Synwave wrote: 250+ homes burned in northern colorado and over 80k acres so far and its not controlled. The colorado springs fire is the 2nd major fire going now. Its getting a little surreal.
As I mentioned in my post, there is also a growing one in the Boulder area.
No thats a 3rd fire. Northern Colorado fire This one isnt growing, its already huge and has been burning for quite a long time.
Yeah my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Colorado Springs. I live on the west side of Fort Collins, and i was worried for a couple of days i would be evacuated, but thankfully we managed to stay safe. I cannot imagine what those that have been evacuated or have lost their homes must be going through.
We need rain, the last numbers i saw said we have about 19% of our yearly rainfall, and unless we get rain; more and more fires will start, and once they start they are impossible to put out with the help of nature.
EPT
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