0% containment
100+ homes torched
2nd worst in CO history
half the major aerial firefighting equipment in US deployed (per some reports)

slideshow

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-801790?r....

Pics are from east side of Horsetooth Reservoir just west of town, one of my favorite summertime destinations for swimming around here ....

They should be able to contain the fire as it approaches the NW part of town, as forest gives way to open meadows with less fuel. But its all dry and temps will be heating up again mid week.

This could easily be just the beginning of an historic fire season, as the spring began with snowpack levels around 10-20% of normal in the mountains. No, that's not a typo.

This one was presumably started by lightning, unlike some of the other stupidity by the CO forest service crews starting "controlled" burns ahead of hot dry windy days a few weeks back, and then failing to monitor them.

I remember the last fire threatened the Greely water supply, the Hewlitt fire.
There was a body of water they get water from.
This fire may threaten Horsetooth, a water supply for Fort Collins.
Very interesting situation, and only the beginning of a dry summer.

Bad year - my brother lost his home and property in the Little Bear Fire in Lincoln County, NM on Saturday night. What's sad is, it started as a very small fire on Friday and the forestry service chose to not completely supress it. Somebody made the decision at some point that it was "contained" and pulled the crews. Now, 26,000+ acres, 0 containment, 36 structures burned.

Sharpen your Pulaskis. Skilled firefighters may soon be in short supply.

welp. i think everyone knew this year was going to be a big fire year...

looks like it's delivering

Landshark, I read somewhere today that Cody Willard had his property hit in that fire. He was told that his house was still standing but he is not sure. If you go to his Twitter account he has posted several youtube videos that he took of the Little Bear fire.

If, I saw that - he posted his description and pictures on MarketWatch. He lucked out big-time, that's one vicious fire. Grew to near 40,000 acres today, and they've put Ruidoso on warning that they may have to evacuate.

Link to the Ruidoso webcam - yesterday you could clearly see the smoke plumes from the fires on the right side of the frame. Today, the entire sky is filled with smoke. Not good.

http://www.ruidoso.net/cam/

On the local news today they talked about the era of mega fires. In part due to we don't let them burn and clear out all the under brush, so everything is a giant tinder bkx

No surprise to those who tangentailly keep track of these things.

Fires are nature's way to clear out the forests.

We should prolly just let them but within reason.

It's true, Low. I can tell you from hiking that area, in some places you have FEET of conifer and pine debris beneath you. Part of the human/nature battle... the longer you hold off the inevitable, the worse it is.

Hey, that sounds kinda familiar...

"the era of mega fires. In part due to we don't let them burn and clear out all the under brush, so everything is a giant tinder box. ... Fires are nature's way to clear out the forests. We should prolly just let them but within reason."


Sounds like a financial allegory.

Many forests have designated "let burn" areas. However the Forest Service also is charged with protecting private property. With fire dynamics being what they are with high fuel densities, low moisture content, large areas of bug kill, and hot windy weather early in the year, it makes fire management a very difficult, failure prone, responsibility.

The other thing about suppression. When fires get to a certain critical mass, there is no stopping them. You might be able to stake out a small battle area with lots of structures and use your manpower to protect them, but for he most part once fires get to a certain point, they burn until they run out of fuel, hit a major fire break, or a big weather shift occurs. Some burn until it snows.

Once monsoon season kicks up and the lightning gets going, this could really turn ugly.

These mountains were bare before they started putting out all the fires. Many of the shots that Ansel Adams took are impossible to take now because of all the brush....

Yep have not been hiking in that area, but others. And in lots of places there just is dead pine everywhere.

Ever stick a Christmas tree in the fireplace? Yep. Exactly.

Quote:

Ever stick a Christmas tree in the fireplace? Yep. Exactly.

Put one on a campfire once, and I know what that looks like. Can't imagine having to abate all of that creosote from a chimney.

Pietertvl,

Are these houses/areas built on land previously used for mining coal? I recall reading CO thought building houses with 15' between a basement floor and an old coal mine tunnel was a sound plan. IIRC the area mentioned might be the current fire zone.

Point is , if this is the case we may have another Centralia brewing if any of the coal deposits ignite.

H - That would be news to me. Lots of coal mined up in Wyo, but I'm not aware of any in Larimer county or No. CO for that matter. Silver, lead, moly ... yes. But not around Ft. Collins.

Correction/update to earlier post -- DP reported yesterday that snowpack is now 2% of normal.

http://geosurvey.state.co.us/SiteCollect....
http://www.westernmininghistory.com/coun....
Hopefully these links will help if you're looking for current and past mining activity.

About 10% contained, but still growing in acreage burning. The smog has left Denver. The wind direction is critical because the fire is very near Rocky Mtn Natl Park which has forests of dead trees from the pine beetles that are perfect matchsticks.
http://www.9news.com/images/High-Park-Fi....

The federal government has not been selling timber in anywhere near normal quantities from federally-owned land over the past couple of years. Indeed, the prices have not been the best, but timber lands need to be managed and school districts nearby are paid timber royalties as compensation for the land being off the tax roles. Some schools may have just lost twice.

Quote:

The federal government has not been selling timber in anywhere near normal quantities from federally-owned land over the past couple of years.

Just speculating here, but that might be due to demand from the construction industry through the floor into the basement.

For continually updated detailed information on the High Park Incident in Colorado:

Check this thread at the Wildland Hotlist:

http://www.wildlandfire.com/hotlist/show....


From there you can also branch out to most of your critical links to USFS and regional agency reporting.

Another link:
http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2904/

The fire jumped the Poudre river. The rains from last night didn't reach the fire at all. 52,000 acres burned so far, and over 100 homes lost.