The fire near Boulder is now mostly under control and the pre-evacuation notices have been lifted. Little fires keep starting anew because of lightning strikes but so far they’ve all been extinguished rapidly.
So, for now at least, the worst is over. Here’s what the arealooked like last night–click it to get a full-sized, un-truncated version:

(Unfortunately I can’t provide proper credit for that photo; it was making the rounds on Twitter this afternoon.) As you can see, calling it “a fire” was something of an understatement. For those of you unfamiliar with this area, that ridge is about 1.5 miles from one edge of town. The lights near the lower left are the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

Thanks for wondering. We’re fine; the nearest fire, although only 1.5 miles from the edge of Boulder, is on the far side of Boulder from us. We also live away from the mountains and hence away from wooded areas (i.e. large collections of flammable material). Yes, it’s scary; no, we’re not in any immediate danger.

Here’s a video of fire-fighting aircraft at the nearest fire, taken today:

 
I knew a commercial pilot who used to fly fire-fighting runs like that. He said it was the most-fun flying he’d ever done; I can kind of see why. read more