2012 Wildfire season

waltky · Jun 24, 2012

Gonna be a l-o-n-g, hot summer...

Firefighters Struggle Against Major Blazes In Two States
Sun Jun 24, 2012 - Firefighters in Utah and Colorado struggled on Saturday to contain raging wildfires stoked by high winds, which have forced the evacuation of more than 2,000 people in Utah and burned some 200 dwellings in Colorado.

Fanned by winds, the so-called Dump Fire about 35 miles south of Salt Lake City, Utah grew to 5,600 acres on Saturday from 4,000 late Friday, and was only about 30 percent contained, Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Cami Lee said. In neighboring Colorado, firefighters grappling with the High Park Fire, a 75,537-acre blaze burning in steep mountain canyons west of Fort Collins, braced for another round of hot temperatures, low humidity and erratic winds on Saturday. "Fire activity is expected to increase in the afternoon," according to the federal fire incident command center. Late Friday afternoon, wind-stoked flames jumped containment lines and roared through a subdivision, destroying an estimated nine homes, Larimer County Sheriff's Office spokesman John Schulz said.

The additional property losses bring to 200 the number of dwellings lost in the two weeks since the lightning-sparked blaze was first spotted in Colorado. The Utah fire is burning primarily south and west of Saratoga Springs, where wind gusts of up to 35 miles per hour were expected to confound firefighting efforts, Lee said. Officials say target shooters triggered the blaze near a city landfill on Thursday. It is the 20th fire in Utah started by target shooting this year, they said. But on Saturday they revised down substantially the number of people evacuated in Saratoga Springs and nearby Eagle Mountain. Some 588 homes were evacuated in the two towns on Friday affecting up to 2,500 residents, according to Jason Curry of Utah's office of Forestry, Fire and State Lands.

On Friday, officials had said up to 8,000 people were evacuated. The substantial change followed a more accurate count, Curry said. Utah officials will decide later in the day if any residents will be allowed to return home, Lee said. "We're waiting to see what the winds do," she said. "We have a lot of unburned areas between the fire area and the homes and with the high winds, things can always change quickly." Some 450 firefighters were on the ground Saturday in Utah, with support from two air tankers and several helicopters, Lee said. One firefighter had suffered minor burns, but no other injuries had been reported. The Colorado fire is blamed for the death of a 62-year-old grandmother who perished in her mountain cabin. The High Park Fire is already the state's most destructive and the second-largest on record in Colorado.

Incident commander Bill Hahnenberg said crews deployed in the narrow Colorado canyons had to retreat on Friday when the fire blew up and they could no longer protect homes. "We had a very difficult time," Hahnenberg said. The fire is burning on private land and on sections of the Roosevelt National Forest. As of Friday, there were 15 large, uncontained wildfires being fought across the country, most in six Western states - Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona - the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, reported. Although federal authorities say the fire season got off to an early start this summer in parts of the Northern Rockies, the acreage burned nationwide is about on par with the 10-year average for this time of year, according to fire agency records. The biggest by far is the Whitewater-Baldy Complex fire in New Mexico, that state's largest on record, which has charred almost 300,000 acres. That blaze is nearly 90 percent contained.

Firefighters struggle against major blazes in two Western states | Reuters
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Utah wildfire evacuees allowed to return to homes
23 June`12 - About 2,300 Utah wildfire evacuees were allowed to return to their homes Saturday evening after officials determined the blaze no longer posed a threat to them.

The decision came after the fire had burned Friday within a quarter mile of some homes in Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain, about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City, Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Teresa Rigby said. No homes have burned, she said, and fire officials were comfortable with the decision to lift the evacuation order after seeing how the 9-square-mile blaze behaved Saturday afternoon during high winds and high temperatures. "The fire itself is still active but it no longer is a direct threat to homes," Rigby told The Associated Press. "Most of the fire is up on the mountain at this time and not near the subdivisions."

The evacuation order, imposed Friday, affected nearly 600 homes and roughly 2,300 residents, according to an updated count released Saturday by fire officials. Winds pushed some of the fire back on itself Saturday afternoon, Rigby said, and crews managed to put out "hot spots" closest to homes. The fire that officials believe was started Thursday by target shooters was 30 percent contained Saturday evening, with full containment expected Tuesday.

Crews also were battling a 16,500-acre brush fire on high desert near the town of Delta in central Utah. The human-caused fire was 60 percent contained Saturday evening, BLM spokesman Don Carpenter said, and had burned no homes after breaking out Friday. While the fire was burning roughly eight miles from the communities of Lynndyl and Leamington, it posed no threat to them at this time, he said.

Elsewhere:
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IanC · Jun 24, 2012

interference by humans has changed the mechanics of forest fires in many areas. we put out the little fires that used to clean up the debris and sickly trees close to ground level. now that crap gets built up to the point where small fires burn hot enough to light the crowns of healthy trees rather than just char the trunks and whole forests burn up.

waltky · Jun 24, 2012

Ian wrote: interference by humans has changed the mechanics of forest fires in many areas. we put out the little fires that used to clean up the debris and sickly trees close to ground level. now that crap gets built up to the point where small fires burn hot enough to light the crowns of healthy trees rather than just char the trunks and whole forests burn up.

Granny says, "Dat's right...

... its dem fire, an' flames an' vapors of smoke...

... like it says it gonna be inna end times inna Bible...

... we all gonna die."

IanC · Jun 24, 2012

do you have to be a true believer for an angel to swoop you up when the Rapture comes? I mean Jesus still loved Doubting Thomas, didnt he?

lol

waltky · Jun 28, 2012

Smoke startin' to filter east of the Mississippi River...

Raging US wildfires force evacuations
Thu, Jun 28, 2012 - EPIC PROPORTIONS: Twenty-nine large wildfires were being fought across the US on Tuesday, with the Waldo Canyon fire reaching the outskirts of Colorado Springs

A wildfire raging near some of Colorados most popular tourist sites grew suddenly more ferocious on Tuesday, forcing 32,000 people from their homes, prompting evacuations from the US Air Force Academy and swallowing numerous houses at the edge of Colorado Springs. From the vantage point of a command post about 16km from the path of advancing flames, the entire community of Mountain Shadows, a northwest subdivision, appeared to be enveloped in an orange glow after dark. This is a fire of epic proportions, Colorado Springs Fire Chief Rich Brown said as ash drifted down on the city, sirens wailed and the thick smell of smoke permeated the air.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper flew into the city on Tuesday night by helicopter to meet with fire commanders and tour the fire zone first-hand. He said that the blaze was one of at least a dozen burning throughout the state. Four people have died in Colorado wildfires so far this year. This is the worst fire season in the history of Colorado, he said during an impromptu news conference, adding that from the air he saw many homes destroyed in a glowing landscape that looked surreal.

The Waldo Canyon fire, which has roared through at least 25km2 of dry timber since Saturday, has grabbed attention for days because of its proximity to landmarks like the famed mountaintop of Pikes Peak and the Air Force Academy. The blaze claimed its first property losses on Tuesday as wind-driven flames swept over containment lines into Colorados second-most populous city, consuming an unknown number of homes on the towns outskirts as authorities hurried to evacuate residents. El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said 32,000 people had been evacuated, and an Air Force Academy spokesman said the evacuation zone included two communities of single-family homes on academy grounds housing civilian and military personnel and their families.

A mushroom cloud of gray, black and brown smoke, topped by billowing, white cumulus clouds, rose nearly 6,100m into the sky and hung over the area as residents scrambled to heed evacuation orders. Asked how quickly the fire was spreading after the latest flare-up on Tuesday afternoon, incident commander Rich Harvey said: If I gave acreage right now, it would be wrong in five minutes. Its growing. Still, the Waldo Canyon fire, burning primarily within the Pike National Forest on the western fringe of Colorado City, was dwarfed in size by wildfires elsewhere across the state, and by a fatal blaze that flared with renewed intensity in Utah.

More Raging US wildfires force evacuations - Taipei Times
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Wildfire evacuee settles in at a Colorado shelter
Wednesday, June 27: The Waldo Canyon wildfire forced thousands of people away from their homes and into Red Cross shelters when ferocious winds drove the blaze into the western suburbs of Colorado Springs on Tuesday night.

Among those who scrambled for safety was Simone Covey, a 26-year-old single mother of three. Homeless, Covey had been looking after her sister's apartment near the spectacular Garden of the Gods park when she was told to leave Tuesday evening. "The sky was red, the wind was blowing really fast, and there were embers falling from the sky," Covey said at a Red Cross shelter inside the basketball gymnasium of Cheyenne Mountain High School. "I didn't really have time to think about it. I was just trying to keep my kids calm."

Family in tow, Covey arrived at the shelter and pushed several military-style cots together to keep her children close. They ate cheeseburgers Tuesday night; Wednesday's lunch consisted of gyros served in Styrofoam containers. Donated children's books, teddy bears and other stuffed toys were scattered across blankets that bore the Red Cross emblem. Covey's children, ages 3, 5 and 6, splashed around in kiddie pools set up outside the shelter to beat the scorching heat. Inside, a bank of fans did little to keep the gym cool.

And with nowhere to go, Covey planned on spending another night. "It's definitely different. It's loud, but other than that, it's not that bad," Covey said. She said she hoped to get a motel room soon but confided that "finances are kind of tight right now." Red Cross spokeswoman Catherine Barde said 159 people stayed at the Cheyenne Mountain High School shelter Tuesday night, and 148 people were at three other shelters.

EDITOR'S NOTE _ A daily update on a family displaced by the Colorado Springs wildfire.

Wildfire evacuee settles in at a Colorado shelter - Yahoo! News
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skookerasbil · Jun 28, 2012

Clearly, lightning is a new phenomenon in the weather of the United States. Too......forests never got dry before the age of global warming.

Dont forget.........the k00k environmentalists get hysterical over ANY acute weather anomoly.

waltky · Jun 30, 2012

Most destructive wildfire in Colorado history...

Colorado wildfire: 346 homes lost, 1 dead in Waldo Canyon fire
6/29/2012 - The roaring Waldo Canyon fire that exploded into west-side neighborhoods of Colorado Springs destroyed 346 homes making it the most destructive wildfire in state history. It also has claimed at least one life.

Colorado Springs Police Chief Pete Carey announced late Thursday that human remains had been found in a burned home in the Mountain Shadows neighborhood. A second person is missing, he said. He said the body was found in the rubble at 2910 Rossmere St. No further details were released. Residents of three dozen streets in the Mountain Shadows neighborhood were summoned to a meeting Thursday night at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

There, they learned with certainty which of their homes had survived and which had fallen in the unprecedented firestorm Tuesday afternoon and evening. "This is going to be a tough evening, but we're going to get through it," Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach said before the meeting. "This community is going to mount an unprecedented response to this. ... This community will surround them with love and encouragement, and we will move forward as a city."

At the meeting, people were gathered by street to receive the news. "People finding out for the first time were in tears," Byron Largent said, but it was good to "see the way the street came together and supported each other." Byron and his wife Rebekah, who lived on Majestic Drive, said they already knew their news was bad, because they had seen an aerial photo in The Denver Post. The Largents lost their home on the daughter Emma's first birthday. "We got us out, our daughter out and our cat out," he said. "What else matters?"

Even as bad news was being spread, firefighters were ending a good day on the fire lines as cooler temperatures and even a squall of rain fell over the 16,750-acre fire. Effective at 8 p.m., mandatory evacuation orders were lifted for some neighborhoods, but remained in effect for Cedar Heights, Mountain Shadows, Peregrine and areas north of Rockrimmon. By evening, officials said, crews had 15 percent containment on the Waldo Canyon fire, which has been burning west of the city since Saturday.

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Old Rocks · Jul 1, 2012

No large fires in western Montana, but risk is rising

Western Montana seems to have misplaced its ticket to the bonfire season that’s torching the eastern half of the state, but fire officials remain braced for trouble over the Fourth of July week.

“We certainly came out of the chute pretty quick this year,” said Paula Short at the state Department of Natural Resources on Friday. “At least we’ve got all our large fires staffed with incident management teams now. With this early start, we’re expecting above-average temperatures and below-average humidity in the southeast and all along the bottom of the state.”

The northern Rocky Mountain region of Montana, northern Idaho and Yellowstone National Park typically burns about 160,000 acres a year. As of Friday, the region had 266,000 blackened acres. And that doesn’t count any of the major forest fires burning in Wyoming or Colorado.

Old Rocks · Jul 1, 2012

https://sites.google.com/a/wyo.gov/wsfd-fire-information/

Wyoming Fire Situation Report

Last Updated: 06/29/2012

Rocky Mountain Area Morning Update June 29, 2012

Preparedness Level
•National 4

•Rocky Mountain Area 5

New fires: 32

New large fires: 2

Uncontained large fires: 13

Old Rocks · Jul 1, 2012

Utah fires continue to burn across state - ABC4.com - Salt Lake City, Utah News

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Six major wildfires continued to burn from one end of Utah to the other.

So far, the active fires have burned more than 95,000 acres and destroyed more than 50 structures. Many of those structures were homes caught up in the Wood Hollow Fire in Sanpete and Utah Counties

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2012 Wildfire season

waltky Wise ol' monkey Supporting Member

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2012 Wildfire season

waltky Wise ol' monkey Supporting Member

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