Pics-Colorado Springs Firestorm. TERRIBLE

[Scott P]

Slide show:

http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter/2012/06/photos-waldo-canyon-fire-near-garden-of-the-gods/38318/

Terrible.

Usually it's the mountain towns where people think of fires in Colorado, this time it is the big city. Gob bless.

[middlefork]

Tragic.

[chromehead58]

And I was just bitching about broken ribs.....nice reality check, man my prayers are with those people over there...

[accadacca]

:eek2:

[tanya]

Wow! I lived and trained at the Olympic Training Center (judo) there for so many years! I miss it. It's sad to see this happen there!

[rex welshon]

Some of you may want to know a little more about the Colorado Springs fire. Here goes:

The fire started last Saturday at around noon in Waldo Canyon, which is the third canyon system west of the escarpment immediately adjacent to the city of Colorado Springs. East of Waldo Canyon is Williams Canyon, and east of Williams Canyon is Queen's Canyon. Each canyon runs (going upstream) southeast to northwest, and the canyons are between three and five miles long. From Saturday to Monday morning, the fire remained in Waldo Canyon, Williams Canyon, and areas around them. Prevailing winds from the east and south gently pushed the fire northwest into national forest land. All was acceptable.

Late Sunday, a finger of the fire established itself in Williams Canyon, meandered up its eastern flank and dropped into the western flank of Queen's Canyon. Yesterday, Monday, the fire team was content to let it burn up Queen's and thence into national forest land. Throughout the morning and early afternoon, two C-130s made repeated drops of retardant on the Colorado Springs side of the ridge whose western side forms the eastern wall of Queen's (I hope that makes sense). Winds continued to be from the south and southeast until 4:10. At that point, a dry thunderstorm northwest of the fire area produced a large outflow of wind. Instantaneously, the winds shifted from 5 mph southeastlies to 65 mph westerlies. A finger of the fire lapped the top of the ridge separating Queen's from Colorado Springs. Two minutes later, four or five spot fires erupted on the Colorado Springs side of the ridge two hundred feet below the top and below the retardant; four minutes later, three more were going another two hundred feet below them; and four minutes after that, another one ignited within two hundred yards of the Flying W ranch and houses in the Mountain Shadows area of Colorado Springs. Since the wind was howling directly out of the west, it pushed the flames and smoke down the lee side of the escarpment and fanned them out into Mountain Shadows. The ridge, the fire, and Mountain Shadows disappeared under the smoke. The elapsed time it took the fire to drop the six hundred feet from the ridge top into the neighborhood was less than 10 minutes.

I work at University of Colorado Colorado Springs and watched this dreadful scene unfold out my office window. A co-worker and I were watching the 4 o'clock briefing on an office computer when she looked out and saw the flames on the ridge. She lives in Mountain Shadows. When she saw the flames on the ridge she immediately left to evacuate her home and I watched until the smoke obliterated visibility. It wasn't until about 9 pm last night that the wind changed direction again and the devastation to the neighborhoods started to come into focus. From campus the scene looked like Tolkein's Mordor: at least two dozen different fires ablaze in the neighborhoods and behind them jagged red and orange lines of burning trees and grasses extending up and down the leeward face of the ridge. Awe-inspiring and terrible, to be sure.

No one has a number of lost homes yet -- I'd be amazed if it were fewer than 40. Many faculty and staff live in the affected neighborhoods and have joined the 35,000 other displaced Colorado Springs residents. The campus has generously opened unused dorms for evacuees.

I'm happy to report that my assistant is safe. She doesn't know whether her house is still standing.

The weather forecast for today is more of the same. So it will be another tough one for those on the lines and those who can't go home.

The extraordinary efforts of the city, county, state, and federal firefighters has to be acknowledged. Had they not insisted against frustrated and impatient residents that the evacuation remain in place yesterday, I suspect that many lives would have been lost. All of the jurisdictions are working together in a highly professional way, and many surrounding jurisdictions sent crews in last night. They worked throughout the night, saving many homes. This morning, it's a quiet scene. More help is on the way today.

Rex

[canyonphile]

It is so heartbreaking to see these photos of people's homes up in flames. You usually expect small patches of homes in rural mountain areas to be hit by fires, but not entire subdivisions in a city.

I can only imagine how horrified the evacuees are, wondering or knowing their house and everything in it, are gone. It's just so sad.

[pudgy_groundhog]

Those pictures are heartbreaking. Rex, thanks for the information. I didn't know the details of what had happened - hard to believe it only took ten minutes for the fire to change so drastically. Sounds like the firefighters are doing an amazing job - hope they all stay safe and can contain it soon (and really hoping for rain for you guys).

[Scott Card]

Yikes. Pray for rain.

[accadacca]

Thanks for the report Rex. Sad stuff, glad that many are safe.

[rex welshon]

Quick update: The Denver Post reports this morning that at least 300 houses were destroyed on Tuesday evening. Much cooler and cloudier weather in the last 24 hours helped fire crews yesterday. This morning (Thursday) the fire is still threatening a couple of neighborhoods on the far northwest side of the city, but no further evacuations in Colorado Springs have been ordered. The fire is now burning north-northwest towards Woodland Park, a mountain town that is now on pre-evacuation status.

Pics of the destruction are available at http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter. This site is referred to above by Scott P. There are at least two slideshows on the site. They're the best pictures I've seen.

Rex

[rockgremlin]

Yikes. Pray for rain.

http://comedians.jokes.com/daniel-tosh/videos/daniel-tosh---febreezing-the-homeless :lol8:

[stefan]

thank you, rex, for all your updates and first hand information. seeing all of this is awful and frightening

[rockgremlin]

Weird...

[Scott Card]

This link shows a few before and after pics..... :eek2:

http://www.denverpost.com/wildfires/ci_20962928/photos-before-and-after-views-neighborhood-burned-by#mountainshadows