Quote:
Originally Posted by twistedsquid
we are in berthoud...can smell the fires and see the blaze...evacuation orders issued to over 2000 homes...seems to be concentrated in rist canyon...great pics tomahawk...here's the dilemma...if its the result of a lightening strike is it ok? campfire or cigarette no...
|
The official determination that I have read is that it came from a lightning strike early Saturday morning. I guess the strike created a small 2-acre fire and then it grew to roughly 50 by 0800 on Saturday. By Saturday evening it was up to 8K acres. By noon Sunday, it was over 14K. Sunday night, more than double that. At last check it was still in the low 40K.
I met a family at the reservoir when I was taking pictures who were telling me they witnessed the fire from atop Horsetooth Mtn on Saturday. They said it was a small fire putting up a thin column of smoke and then "bam" it went into firestorm mode. I've never seen it myself, but I understand that an exploding pine tree is something incredible to witness. That's what this family saw. They said it was incredible and alarming to watch.
I watched some of the ridges above the some residences up at the north end of the reservoir suddenly flare up along with individual trees that burned like candles in the distance.
With the massive beetle kill that has swept all along the Rocky Mtn states, not just Colorado, some forestry folks' "worst-case scenario" is that if the winds continue like they are, it isn't outside the realm of possibility that this sucker could scorch everything between Ft Collins and the Canadian border. I do know that if this fire or another one pops up further south, it will likely wipe out Rocky Mountain National Park and the whole Grand Lake valley. Lots of elk steaks will be made on the hoof if that happens.
What will make matters worse is when cooler weather rolls around again and we see a lot of precipitation. I saw that while guiding for an outfitter in '94 after the fire on Storm King Mtn above Glennwood Spgs. The fire took place in the summer and we had some cooler weather move in a couple months later, bringing a lot of rain with it. The boss had driven down I-70 with a trailer full of horses and just gotten down to the ranch out west of Glennwood when his daughter called to say she couldn't get through due to a massive mud slide. It turns out that the rock/mud slide had just missed him by a few minutes before it wiped out the South Canyon area of I-70 just west of Glennwood Spgs.