The tragedies keep coming...

[mistressofmuses]

There are a pair of really terrible fires burning a ways north in Colorado. I knew there was a new weather front coming through, but I absolutely did not anticipate the WIND.

Well, the wind - with sustained speeds up to 40-50mph, with gusts that reached highs of 105 and 110mph - plus the extraordinarily dry conditions... and then some downed power lines and blown transformers... perfect recipe for a horrifying grass fire.

One entire town (Superior) and one entire city (Louisville) have been evacuated. I thought that had to be a typo the first time I read it - the entire CITY. Now evacuations and pre-evacuations have been extended into parts of Broomfield, Westminster, and Arvada. (Brushing up within a mile or so from the previous barn that Alex's riding trainer was boarding at, as well as the Butterfly Pavilion, the invertebrate zoo I interned at several years ago.)

In the summer, having an entire mountain town evacuated for a fire isn't unheard of, but that isn't this. Louisville isn't a little town out in the middle of nowhere, and this is getting close to some very major metropolitan areas.

At least 600 homes in Superior alone have been destroyed, and no new counts are likely to be available until tomorrow.

Live coverage has been horrifying.


We aren't extremely close to the fire, but Alex took this picture earlier, where you can see the glow from the fire and the smoke plume against the sky.

Tomorrow we're supposed to have a winter storm. The snow will hopefully help with the fires, if it's not too little too late.

Comments

[olivermoss]

I saw some of the videos of the evacuations. They are terrifying. I'm glad you're safe. I hope the snow does help.

[mistressofmuses]

Thank you. I'm glad it's not closer, and I definitely hope the change in the weather will help. Way too scary.

[ihavenoarms]

wow

[mistressofmuses]

Definitely hoping they can stop the fires from getting worse overnight.

[soc_puppet]

Fingers crossed for you and the rest of Colorado!

[mistressofmuses]

Thank you! At least the fires are no longer spreading, though the devastation is horrible.

[spikedluv]

I heard about the wind and the fires, but I hadn't heard it was this bad! How awful.

[mistressofmuses]

The aerial footage of the completely destroyed neighborhoods is heartbreaking. They're saying up to 1000 or maybe even more homes destroyed. (Hopefully less, but they haven't assessed everything, and now temperatures are down in the single digits with up to a foot of snow, so that's slowing some efforts, even as it's good for getting any smoldering areas out.)
I've got at least two coworkers who don't know yet if their homes are still there.

[scarlipswolfwife]

I'm glad you two are safe, but still. Yikes. The fact that you can see the glow of the fire is a little scary.

[mistressofmuses]

Me too, thank you.

Yeah, definitely scary that it was so visible from here. If the wind had continued the way it was it's terrifying to think how much more it could have spread.