City of Boulder...pre-evacuation!

http://www.kktv.com/home/headlines/City_....


City Of Boulder On Pre-Evacuation For Wildfire

Because of a new fire, the city of Boulder on pre-evacuation orders. Other homes are already evacuated in the southern part of Boulder County.

CBS4 reports the fire is burning near Bison Drive east of Walker Ranch where 26 evacuation notices have been sent out that includes the Pine Needle Notch subdivision.

931 phone numbers in the City of Boulder received pre-evacuation calls. That includes the entire city from Dartmouth north, Broadway east, to south edge of town. That includes the Table Mesa subdivision.

An evacuation center is located at New Vista High School at Broadway and Baseline.

Crap,is the entire state on fire???

At least a dozen houses and Flying W Ranch burned in Colorado Springs. Close to twenty thousand people evacuated, flames burning along a 4 lane road on the west side of the city now.

These links are pretty good for seeing all of the wildfires and tweets associated with them:

http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~starbird/TtT....

http://www.kktv.com/news/wildfires

105 yesterday at DIA.
100 again today for 5th day in a row, tying the all time record for successive days over 100. Staying hot and dry but not 100s over the week ahead.

Finally some decent rain in some parts of the front range this evening.

However, once we get into monsoon season where we some rain but much more lightning with merely dry strikes, this could really get hairy out here.
That should begin within the next few weeks.

32k people now evacuated from co springs. My friends in Manitou springs are ok and planning to stay with someone way on the east side of co springs. I live on the opposite side of boulder from the newest fire, though i was hiking in flagstaff over the weekend. I have a bag ready and am on the reverse 911 list also. A storm cell came through boulder this afternoon and rapid lightning strikes started this fire up. There are several cells moving through from the south tonight.

There were some big drops, but not enough rain to really darken the asphalt on the roads in boulder. Those storms did set up some lightning fires, though. The high park fire is up to 87kthe acres. Boulder now has a request out for a type 1 team. The resources are stretched so thin with allthe the concurrent fires and the forests are like tinder.

KRDO live feed is excellent. Thoughts are you with you guys up there.

Live KRDO feed in Colorado Springs:

http://www.krdo.com/news/WATCH-LIVE-KRDO....

In the long and short run... a good thing..too much active 'management'...

This is the current map for mandatory evacuation and pre-evacuation (preparatory action) in the City of Colorado Springs:

http://www.springsgov.com/units/communic.... (.pdf)

This is a pre-evacuation checklist of things to do immediately prior to mandatory evacuation order:

http://www.readyforwildfire.org/pre-evac....

Vid - pre-evacs have also gone out this afternoon to Palmer Lake and Monument, and even southern Douglas county just south of Larkspur east to the I-25. That implies that the AFA would also be covered, since that's in between.

Here in south metro Denver we've had thunder on and off for 2hrs and a bit of rain but winds have stayed light so far.

Update: winds picking up now, with gusts at 15-20.

Also, I just noted that all municipal transportation services have been cancelled in preparation for using the fleet to provide surge evacuation capacity for residents.

Drivers have been ordered to meet at a staging location to initiate the plan.

Quote:

Here in south metro Denver we've had thunder on and off for 2hrs and a bit of rain but winds have stayed light so far.

Yes.

The chatter back and forth between the area groups is indicating lighting is firing back up. So, even more starts are likely this afternoon. More chatter among groups indicating some areas are simply going to be 'hard to defend' as winds are picking up very hard now.

Especially when you have scenes like this in the foothill neighborhoods of Colorado Springs:



UPDATE: Fire fighters are now taking self-defensive measures. Confining to huddling for safety in their engines. Denver engine crews reporting 'massive massive' flame front approaching Blodget Loop. Fire running hard now into homes.

This is the area where flames are now driving fast into the boundary residential area:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Blodgett+D....

Douglas County evacuations starting now.
The air force academy is preparing to evacuate. 5% containment of the fire out of colorado springs.
The high park fire has claimed over 250 homes, some counts are significantly higher.

To appreciate the enormity of what is happening in Colorado, see this video by a Youtuber contributing to the The Denver Post of a young man, perched on a hillside over his city commenting on the scene as he watches it burn to the ground:

Pietervl and Videopro:
Could you please post those links? Granted, I don't need help with freaking out, but I haven't see that info on the regular news sites, and I'm trying to keep track of it all, for notification of my friends. Thank you!

Hstella:

The unlinked commentary re: firefighting is coming from monitoring the agencies on-air communication. I'm noting it as close to realtime as possible and cross-referencing map locations. Engines are currently trying to make their stand in the Blodget/Woodman area.

Listen here closely to described locations if you want to know where the immediate problems are occurring:

Colorado Springs and El Paso County Fire: http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio.... IMPORTANT NOTE: This is only but one of many many active communication frequencies operating on this fire, so don't rely on it as all-inclusive

The Youtube contributions are one of a flood of similar videos that are posting in last few hours. Search on YOUTUBE: 'colorado springs fire'.

http://www.springsgov.com/ (the city website) has a lot of continuous updating local information.

Thank you!