OT: Wildfires (CO and elsewhere)

[Louis]

Earlier this year we had some in CA, now several are active in CO, one of which, near CO Springs, has burned over 350 homes. That must be so scary for those in the area.

For some reason I find this to be particularly terrifying. All it takes is one idiot to toss out a smoldering cigarette butt, or a spark from lightning, and BOOM, everything's up in flames.

Best of luck to you if you live in a area prone to this sort of thing.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/06/14/us/ALT-SUB-FIRE/ALT-SUB-FIRE-articleLarge.jpg

[Wilkinson4]

Yes, it is horrible:mad: About 20 miles SE of me but that is my dirt road riding paradise getting torched. There are a lot of horse owners out there as well. It is very sad.

mIKE

[false_Aest]

It's gonna be a brutal year for sure.
The most rain we've had in 1 month since Jan is .75" . . . usually its 2-3".

We probably won't have another fire like the Station Fire but more are gonna pop up. I wouldn't be surprised if something happens in Griffith Park.

IIRC, the Malibu Fires were started by a power line with poor insulation. Lots of tinder in the mtns right now.

[Bradford]

My current client is about 2 miles away from the fire. I came out of the building when they evacuated on Tuesday and it looked like a bomb had gone off over the hill. This picture was taken next to my car a few hours after the fire started. I could see the plume from my house, which is 50 miles away. When I went down yesterday morning, the sky was full of helicopters dumping fluids.

I decided not to go down today and my colleges who went said the smell of smoke in the building was so bad they had to leave.

I had to go to Denver yesterday afternoon and could smell the smoke from there, which is 60 miles away from the fire. My car smelled like a campfire when I got in it today.

Several of my clients live in the Black Forest, so I guess I'll see next week if their houses made it. I have two colleagues on the edge of the evacuation zone also in Monument. One packed what he could and went on a trip to Europe with his family. The'll find out if they have anything left when they get home.

The odd thing is that I have just been getting to know the Black Forest recently and have thought how nice it would be to live there. I was scheduled to do an early morning ride through it today, but we postponed for obvious reasons. It's hard to ride through acrid smoke. If it weren't for the culture down in the Springs, we probably would have considered moving there. I guess I'm safer in the Ranch.

[Louis]

Other than folks moving out, or only using concrete for buildings, or having 100x as much fire-fighting capability with 3 guys on every acre of ground, or paving the whole place over (none of which seem likely to me) I don't see any long-term solutions to this sort of problem.

I suppose it's like tornadoes in OK, you just have to hope that you don't get hit.

[Ralph]

From above....Curious what the culture is in Colorado Springs. Thinking about spending some time there.

[daker13]

It's gonna be a brutal year for sure.
The most rain we've had in 1 month since Jan is .75" . . . usually its 2-3".


I wish I could send some of our clouds back your way: here in RI we've had about 8" of rain in June, the 5th highest rainfall on record, and not even half way through the month.

[gemship]

It's gonna be a brutal year for sure.
The most rain we've had in 1 month since Jan is .75" . . . usually its 2-3".

We probably won't have another fire like the Station Fire but more are gonna pop up. I wouldn't be surprised if something happens in Griffith Park.

IIRC, the Malibu Fires were started by a power line with poor insulation. Lots of tinder in the mtns right now.

I sure wish we here in Ma. could trade you that needed 2/3" for your area. I'll take that .75" with more sun and dry roads thank you. :p

[gemship]

I wish I could send some of our clouds back your way: here in RI we've had about 8" of rain in June, the 5th highest rainfall on record, and not even half way through the month.

Ha,ha beat me to it! Imagine a closer to perfect month of June with a good 1/1.25" of rain every week that comes in the form of two rainy nights well after sundown and ending by 6am...love the rainy night.