Colorado Springs Wildfires, don't let this happen to you.

[Aimless1]

What Antonio said. Life and health are all that matter.

[HeadphoneAddict]

So far the fires are heading back north again, after a brief change in the winds towards the south (us). It's now on the Airforce Academy property and about 1/4 mile from structures. It's also less than 3 miles away from the city of Woodland Park, which is under evacuation.

So far Garden of the Gods and Glen Eyrie have been spared. It's almost on top of the Cave of the Winds though.

With that shift in winds earlier the air quality down south got bad, and it's definitely harder to breath down here.

Edited June 27, 2012 by HeadphoneAddict

[HeadphoneAddict]

Another scary photo from yesterday.

[luvdunhill]

geez, don't run out of oxygen up there! Before you know it will be like Waterworld and you'll be fighting off kids trying to steal some oxygen

Edited June 28, 2012 by luvdunhill

[tyrion]

Larry not sure what to say other then stay safe!

[naamanf]

Stay safe Larry.

I know my house there is safe, forest fires don't normally hit the ghetto.

[CD44hi]

those pics are out of a Stephen King book... stay safe and good wishes!

[The Monkey]

Jesus. It looks like Mordor.

[HeadphoneAddict]

Looks like Mordor and smells like camping fires, but it's hard to enjoy this when it's so thick and it's people's homes burning.

Several of my wife's coworkers are evacuated and fear for their homes. The city has set up a website for people to enter their name, address and phone number to get a call back about the status of their house. To facilitate this they are providing free internet at the shelters so people can get online.

My daughter is worried about her co-workers at the stables, as they earn minimum wage + tips and have apartments to pay for, but they're only getting 2-4 hours of work a day. They go in for a couple of hours in the AM and PM to feed and clean up after the horses that are evacuated to a local equestrian center. With Garden of the Gods closed that aren't taking tourists on trail rides each day and getting tips. With 120 horses they still need all 10 wranglers (daughter included) to care for them.

It's cooled off a little today, but we still have fires burning all over and the embers are traveling up to half a mile to spread little spot fires elsewhere. Cool ash is traveling even farther, landing like 10-15 miles away. The C-130's with 3,000 gallons of retardant were grounded about 3PM due to high winds, but the helicopters are still flying at 8PM to douse the spot fires with 800 gallon buckets. Not sure if the smaller 2,000 gallon planes are flying or not.

And yeah, the ghetto is not at risk at this time, although some people would like to see Fountain at Chelton burn down.

[HeadphoneAddict]

Just heard about this website donating all profits to benefit the wildfire victims. The local news interviewed them a little while ago.

http://www.wildfiretees.com/

[Absorbine_Sr]

Stay safe Larry. That is fucking insane.

[HeadphoneAddict]

20 years ago my wife and I lived in the stricken area, and new photos now show that our first house together has burned to the ground.

We lived in the little cul de sac at the bottom third of this photo - see the little red box I drew around it. We loved that little 2 bedroom house, but moved away when I started my solo medical practice in Canon City CO. When we moved back 12 years ago it was with 3 kids, and we found a larger home in the foothills of NORAD instead. But we always thought about buying a home like the 1st one after the kids are all moved out and we are both retired. It was a beautiful neighborhood.

I have this strange urge to reach out to whomever currently owns the house and give something to them to help them out in their time of need, because it's so close to my heart.

[HeadphoneAddict]

The Wildfire as seen from space

[HeadphoneAddict]

The fires are 80% contained, and we're hoping Colorado Springs and Woodland park are finally safe. It's very windy right now, but dumping rain, so while rain is welcome there is now the worry about flash flooding because of the fire areas not absorbing water like normal.

While so very sad about the 346 homes and 2 lives lost, we're so happy that some places were were sure would burn were saved, including Garden of the Gods, Glen Eyrie, Eagle Lake Camp, and Caves of the Winds. Eagle Lake Camp is a 100 acre island of green in the middle of 18,000 burned acres, and firemen camped out there to keep it safe. Many of us here think it's as important a landmark as GOG and Glen Eyrie.

Some firemen in action in the NW neighborhoods that were decimated.

http://youtu.be/AZei9lJ2G1k