Colorado Wild Fire

[The Kings Daughter]

So this fire has been going on for over a week and it's not out yet? o.O Colorado Springs, CO is also being effected, do we have any CO ToOers?

Remember to pray for Colorado:)

[Angel]

I'm watching the live coverage here on news13: http://www.krdo.com/news/WATCH-LIVE-KRD ... index.html

I have several family members in Colorado, I can't think of any ToOers there at the moment, I'm checking now.

[Jimmy Barclay Fan]

Of course, Focus on the Family and Whit's End is located in Colorado Springs. Any word on how the campus is doing ??

[Woody]

We had a fire like that in CA once. The fire came within 16 feet of our house, which was under construction and in Tyvek paper. And three houses near us burned to the ground.

[~JCGJ~]

Here's a picture from the Focus on the Family headquarters.



I believe this was taken yesterday, but I'm not exactly sure.

[Stop Wooton' Around]

Wow, that's kinda scary.

We don't have many wildfires here in Indiana. However, its been so dry we have a constant burn ban. It is so dry that some field are turning yellow. It is supposed to be 104 here Friday. Luckily, Indiana weather is acting up and its not humid. Its usually very humid.

[Graces4you]

Doesn't OdysseyFan live somewhere in Colorado?

[Angel]

Here are some recent maps of the area. The fire's approximate extent and the evacuation area under threat.

[Jesus' Princess]

Wow, that's close, kind of scary. There's also a big fire near Helena MT right now... I have a friend in the Denver area, and he almost had to evacuate the other day, it's pretty bad down there.

Where I am, we sometimes get bad fires, usually later in the summer mainly in Late July/August. Last year we had one super close to us, we could see the flames from out upstairs windows.. Pretty scary.

[Jeremy]

You can see where the fire is burning and how close it is to FOTF (they're on the other side of I-25) in Google Earth using the following KML link: http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/data/km ... _modis.kml

Here in Arizona our Monsoon season is starting to arrive already, so we may have dodged another "mega fire"--although it's been drier than ever before. Last year, we had the largest fire in AZ history near here, over half a million acres.

Jeremy

[Graces4you]

My friend just moved there, near Denver, and a friend of my brother just posted this on facebook.

if you could all pray for my relatives in CO, that would be awesome. they had to evacuate their house because of the wildfires. thanks everyone.

We had really bad fires here last year, but not this close. A couple years back there was a really bad grass fire about a 1/2 a mile down the street from my house waay to early in the season.

[Angel]

A few close friends of mine have evacuated, and my relatives are near by as well.
Definitely keep praying for these people.

There was just a press conference, they said that the direction the fires are going in strange directions because of the wind, also they have not released any addresses of houses that have been burned because they haven't gotten an estimate yet. Parts of Woodland Park are being evacuated. The fire is staying on the West side of I-25. There was some rain in Monument, but not enough to make a difference at the moment. There is lightening and wind right now, which is not good.

[Jeremy]

I just realized that AIO has never done an episode about a wildfire. Maybe they will now.

[Angel]

Well, they did one about an earthquake, and that was scary enough for me at the time. The actors did really well portraying fear, especially Connie.

[American Eagle]

Aaaand I really don't understand why we can't put this out. If Iran launched a nuclear weapon at us, we could track it and blow it out of the sky. When massive fires are spreading across our land, though, the best we can do is firefighters with garden hoses? Why can't we drop massive amounts of ash on the fire to smother it? Why can't we pour a special liquid substance around the blaze that cannot catch on fire? Hmm, these things perplex me.

Nevertheless, my thoughts and prayers are with the evacuees. Tough times.

[Angel]

I've been watching the news literally all day. I just thought I'd write up an explanation for some of this.

First off, the wind is making it very difficult to stop the fires; making it too dangerous to stop them from the ground, and too dangerous for helicopters to fly over. The wind is also making the fire's future path very unpredictable.
Second, they do actually have several substances they have been spreading in the woods to detain the flames, which has helped significantly. Some of the embers are flying around and starting smaller fires near the bottom of the mountains, but helicopters are actually able to subdue them pretty well using loads of 3,000 gallons of water at a time.
Lastly, the reporters aren't really saying much about the progress since they haven't been able to check the effected areas, but it seems there is far less smoke and flame than before. On the mountains, the fire is just 3.1 miles away from Woodland Park (friends of mine who live there have evacuated), and on the East side of the mountain (towards the I-25 side) the flames have reached parts of Mountain Shadow housing and are near Peregrine.

For the sake of AIO: It looks like FOTF will be fully safe as it is on the East side of I-25, and the fire is only touching parts of the West side.

Edit: Many evacuees are in Red Cross shelters in multiple areas including Monument. They seem to be doing well, they aren't full yet, and supplies are coming in plentifully. The major frustration the residents have at this moment is not knowing the condition of their houses, as the officials are waiting to see the extent of the damage of all the houses before they talk to the residents personally.

[The Kings Daughter]

Aaaand I really don't understand why we can't put this out. If Iran launched a nuclear weapon at us, we could track it and blow it out of the sky. When massive fires are spreading across our land, though, the best we can do is firefighters with garden hoses? Why can't we drop massive amounts of ash on the fire to smother it? Why can't we pour a special liquid substance around the blaze that cannot catch on fire? Hmm, these things perplex me.

It's much easier to break things than to fix them.

If it were spring that'd be one thing, but it's just so dry out. o.O More pictures, the first half of them you can see just how massive this is, second half are pictures of the evacuation and what's being done to put the fire out.

Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime;
it is the Lord who makes the storm clouds.
He gives showers of rain to men,
and plants of the field to everyone.

[~JCGJ~]

Aaaand I really don't understand why we can't put this out. If Iran launched a nuclear weapon at us, we could track it and blow it out of the sky. When massive fires are spreading across our land, though, the best we can do is firefighters with garden hoses? Why can't we drop massive amounts of ash on the fire to smother it? Why can't we pour a special liquid substance around the blaze that cannot catch on fire? Hmm, these things perplex me.

Nevertheless, my thoughts and prayers are with the evacuees. Tough times.

Angel makes some good points.
You need to realize that the winds have been up to 65 miles per hour.
And also, if you look at that picture I posted earlier, you'll see that the flames are quite a ways away from the FOTF headquarters, yet people reported that they could feel the heat from the fire as they were walking to their cars.
A helicopter or airplane (which is the most effective way of controlling a fire) would not be able to get close enough to the fire in order to safely do anything terribly effective...
And you also have to realize that they have to fly above the flame.
Have you ever held your hand about a foot above a candle on a cake? It's around 150 degrees fahrenheit one foot above a small candle flame, yet a foot away (to the side of the candle) isn't going to be much hotter than the surrounding temperature.
If people are feeling the heat a couple of miles away, just imagine how hot it is above the flames.

(For those of you who are real nit-picky, most of these statements are estimates, from my own experiences)

[Angel]

Aaaand I really don't understand why we can't put this out. If Iran launched a nuclear weapon at us, we could track it and blow it out of the sky. When massive fires are spreading across our land, though, the best we can do is firefighters with garden hoses? Why can't we drop massive amounts of ash on the fire to smother it? Why can't we pour a special liquid substance around the blaze that cannot catch on fire? Hmm, these things perplex me.

Nevertheless, my thoughts and prayers are with the evacuees. Tough times.

Angel makes some good points.
You need to realize that the winds have been up to 65 miles per hour.
And also, if you look at that picture I posted earlier, you'll see that the flames are quite a ways away from the FOTF headquarters, yet people reported that they could feel the heat from the fire as they were walking to their cars.
A helicopter or airplane (which is the most effective way of controlling a fire) would not be able to get close enough to the fire in order to safely do anything terribly effective...
And you also have to realize that they have to fly above the flame.
Have you ever held your hand about a foot above a candle on a cake? It's around 150 degrees fahrenheit one foot above a small candle flame, yet a foot away (to the side of the candle) isn't going to be much hotter than the surrounding temperature.
If people are feeling the heat a couple of miles away, just imagine how hot it is above the flames.

(For those of you who are real nit-picky, most of these statements are estimates, from my own experiences)

Just to validate what you have said, ~JCGJ~, there was a man that called in the the news channel who lives near by Peterson AFB who said that there were dollar-sized ashes falling from the sky. And yes, people who have had to flea quickly from their neighborhoods have said they could feel the heat, and had a hard time breathing from the smoke.
Please keep the firefighters in your prayers, they have been working long hard hours. Hundreds of firefighters from different states have come to help with the efforts, and one of these volunteers had climate sickness. These firefighters are in extreme heat (from the fire, and from the weather, since it's over 100 degrees) and they have to carry heavy equipment around.

[American Eagle]

First off, the wind is making it very difficult to stop the fires; making it too dangerous to stop them from the ground, and too dangerous for helicopters to fly over. The wind is also making the fire's future path very unpredictable.
Second, they do actually have several substances they have been spreading in the woods to detain the flames, which has helped significantly. Some of the embers are flying around and starting smaller fires near the bottom of the mountains, but helicopters are actually able to subdue them pretty well using loads of 3,000 gallons of water at a time.

I thank you for this. Obviously my post underestimated the efforts of Colorado firefighters. It appears we are making strides towards putting the fire out; such as firebreaks and helitacks (both epic names, btw). My heart just feels for all the people losing their homes. If I was living out there, I'd be all like, "LET'S PUT THIS THING OUT! GRAB SOME BUCKETS!"

I'm glad to hear that no deaths have occurred.

It's much easier to break things than to fix them.

True. I suppose I've seen too many sci-fi movies where the Americans can do anything they set their mind to.