Thursday, July 19, 2012

Waldo Canyon Fire

 Saturday, June 23rd, around 1:00pm or so, I looked out the window and saw this:
I was home with Jenna who was sick. Kevin had gone with Papa, Mima, Kellen and the cousins to the North Pole, which I figured was about where the smoke was coming from. I know there is no cell phone reception up there, so I called Papa's house to see if they had come home yet. Mima was there with Kellen for his nap, but the others had stayed for a little longer.
This is what they saw from the North Pole:
I'm glad they didn't stay much longer. Soon, Kevin called to say that they had come back. I was glad. (The fire started somewhere around noon in Waldo Canyon which is on the North side of Highway 24, the North Pole is on the South side of the highway and a little further west.)

Sunday morning, Highway 24 closed. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday - almost continuous news coverage of the fire. Major news conferences at 8:00 am and 4:00pm every day.
Tuesday, June 26th - This picture was time stamped at 4:22pm. We had just watched the 4:00pm news conference and I started making dinner. We looked out and saw more smoke. And even more scary - FIRE! The wind took a major change and the fire came over the ridge.
Hundreds of homes and thousands of people were evacuated very quickly. 346 homes, Flying W Ranch, and (we thought) our favorite picnic spot at Rampart Reservoir were destroyed. Later, we found out that the picnic spot was untouched. Sadly, two lives were lost in the fire.
It was a horrific thing to see, but we couldn't stop looking outside. Papa and Mima came to spend the night with us just in case evacuations extended over the highway to their home overnight. And, because they couldn't open their windows and cool their house down due to smoke. We felt so blessed to have air conditioning and that we could share with them.
The smoke quickly came and settled over our house for a few hours. By morning we found out that the fire had tripled in acreage in that one night: 5,000 some acres to 15,000 some acres. In the days to come, we would have clearer mornings with smoke plumes increasing in the afternoon as winds picked up.
Monday, July 2nd - the first day to have a pretty clear sky. A total of 18,247 acres burned by the 100% containment date of July 10th. 100% contained means that the perimeter of the fire is in control and will not spread. The center will continue to smolder for who knows how long.

A HUGE thank you to all the firefighters who saved our city from what could have been much worse, to all the media who kept us informed, and all the resource teams who are helping people start over.
Posted by at 3 comments:
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)