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).
Holy crap!
My geography sucks. Until yesterday’s post I didn’t realize it was close enough to you to worry…
That’s a spectacular photo. It would just be beautiful if there wasn’t so much peril involved. It looks positively surreal.
It would be easy enough to be confused by the geography, or more specifically the multitude of fires. When the fire near(est) Boulder started, there were at least 10 other forest fires burning in the state. None of those were near Boulder, but they were getting attention in the national news.
On one hand I can say that I was never worried as such about the threat to us of the fire. It was a good ways off and we sort of live out on the plains rather than up against the mountains. On the other hand, those ~30,000 people who had to evacuate from Colorado Springs (after which 346 houses burned) probably also thought that the Waldo fire was far enough away to not be a concern. So yeah, “holy crap” is not misplaced.
wow. was just watching the news and thought about you guys out there. i hope things stay in your favor.