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A wildfire wiped out much of my community yesterday

I have always realized I lived near the wildland-urban interface. It's really my only reason to live in Colorado. In my neighborhood, this has always been more focused on mountain lions, the bobcats in my greenbelt, eagles, ospreys, etc. We even had a bear in town this year and a pair of elk. I am 7 miles from the mountains, and wildfires happen primarily in the mountains, but I'm still within that interface. Last year, I posted pictures as I watched fires consume mansions about 7 miles from where I live; on the foothills.

Throughout this year, my area has been in drought conditions, and with temperatures hovering around 20 degrees above normal throughout all of the fall [the most beautiful fall I have ever seen] and the winter [until today]. I have had 2 days of measurable precipitation in the last 5 months, including today [I am in a winter storm warning], and this will be the latest measurable snowfall on record in my area; which I expect to be broken today.

Yesterday, a wildfire started at my local mountain bike trail, very suspected, and with very clear visual proof, that the power lines snapped in 115 MPH winds.

I ran some errands around town, and when I got around the corner to my home, I suddenly saw smoke a few miles away directly south of me. The fire was actually southwest of me, but I couldn't figure that out because of how aggressive the smoke was blowing the wind. I knew this was going to be a horrible situation. I took a shower because I knew I was not in immediate danger, but likely would be. By the time I hopped out of the shower, the fire had changed from a gray-white, to gray-black, and I knew my area was burning.

At this point I started to collect all of the information I could; listening to county fire, tuning to my county's emergency networks on twitter and facebook, but information was pretty scarce. My brother lives on the south side of the fire, so we were also coordinating with each other from what we could see, or tell. As the fire grew, for the first time in my life, I prepared an evacuation bag. I listened as the fire crossed highway 36 and surrounded Avista hospital; very close to me. Eventually, evacuation orders were given, and I was just across the street from mandatory evacuation. Surely this fire couldn't burn across 2 major towns to hit my house, could it? I went into each room and catalogued all of my possessions with my phone.

Well, it turns out it probably could. As the fire grew, I packed everything I really cared to take with me. I am single, so it was essentially documents pertaining to the house/insurance, a death certificate, clothes, toothbrush, sleeping stuff, a towel, pillows, my ski gear [brand new], and my PS5 [only because they're hard to find]. Everything else, as far as I was concerned, could melt. I could get a new TV, a new mountain bike, new speakers, a new monitor; none of that stuff really mattered. I also planned to grab my computer, but kept it hooked up because it was a source of information for me, and it was to be the last item I grabbed before evacuating. As I was finishing up, I hooked up my bike rack [it's a nice back rack], and offered to help my neighbors who evacuated, and I advised another elderly neighbor that she should pack a bag.

As the sun was setting, the fire was now close enough that I could hear explosions and pops that would be followed by an illumination of the billowing clouds as the ember shrapnel set other nearby fires and new distinct layers of smoke as they marched closer. The explosions increased as propane tanks burst, and I had to evaluate if it was still safe for me to stay. At this time, I had seen the traffic flow as Louisville evacuated, and they still weren't moving the emergency shelter that was set up close by.

Had the fire started about 2 hours earlier, I don't think my home, nor old town Louisville would be standing today because of the winds. I am greatly appreciative of the efforts of the firefighters, and I feel burdened by the loss of others' homes and places they, and I, love.

This is the most destructive fire in Colorado history, which, by the graces of us failing to make changes in this world, has happened in December; taking over 600 homes; the closest within walking distance of my home. This was was preceded last year by the 3 largest fires in Colorado history

Pictures:

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Post shower:
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30 minutes later
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Video:


Right now:
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HoodWinked

Member
Ya saw something about fires in Boulder, Colorado. Really fortunate for you the fire was stopped before getting to your house.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
That's really terrible, I hope you will be able to recover from that soon™.
 
For some reason I always think of Fallout New Vegas when I read of Boulder. 2022 will be a defining year, if we get the record droughts of 2021 in the US and the downpours and floods in Europe then their can't be any denial of climate change, but still people will. Stay frosty and that looks a beautiful area to live.
 

TrueLegend

Member
As bad it is, its not even a drop in the ocean that is climate chaos. But in the world we live in welcome to being called wierdo and people completely dismissing your reality as story. 'Its was just a little fire' they will say. 'Must have been the wind'. I wish best to you though. I hope you n your community recover soon.
 
For some reason I always think of Fallout New Vegas when I read of Boulder. 2022 will be a defining year, if we get the record droughts of 2021 in the US and the downpours and floods in Europe then their can't be any denial of climate change, but still people will. Stay frosty and that looks a beautiful area to live.

I moved to Colorado in 2013, only 3 years have not had records or immense natural disasters; 2014, 2015, 2017.

Temperature readings apply to Denver:

2012 [before I moved here] Waldo Canyon fire, hottest year on record
2013: September flooding; broke record - totally changed the landscape and caused mountains to slide.
2016: Damaging fires; one that impacted me the most was started by vagrants
2018: 4th most days above 95 degrees
2019: Record setting avalanche season because of the way the ridge develops due to rising global temperatures causing large snow moisture events. [an aside, but massive hail storm]
2020: 2nd hottest year on record, 3rd most days above 95 degrees, 3 largest wildfires in Colorado history, 7 wildfires that I can name off the top of my head [3 within 40 minutes of me], smoke pollution for July-November.
2021: 3rd hottest summer on record, 5th driest, latest measurable snowfall for Denveron record [mild discrepency in recordkeeping by 3 days] for my area, latest on record [today], most destructive wildfire in CO history, in December. Wettest start to the year ever for Denver.

I think one of the reasonings for my post is because if it can happen to my non-mountain community. It can happen to anyone's. People need to realize this. I don't even know how often we lose non-mountain communities to wildfires because I cannot recall ever hearing of it.


Beautiful area: Thanks. I really love my little neighborhood. I live next to some beautiful houses and the greenbelt is amazing. My realtor tried to get me to buy homes in 2 different areas compared to here, but I decided to compromise on a modest place for a more beautiful neighborhood. Had I bought in either of the others, I would have likely lost my home.
 
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I moved to Colorado in 2013, only 3 years have not had records or immense natural disasters; 2014, 2015, 2017.

Temperature readings apply to Denver:

2012 [before I moved here] Waldo Canyon fire, hottest year on record
2013: September flooding; broke record - totally changed the landscape and caused mountains to slide.
2016: Damaging fires; one that impacted me the most was started by vagrants
2018: 4th most days above 95 degrees
2019: Record setting avalanche season because of the way the ridge develops due to rising global temperatures causing large snow moisture events. [an aside, but massive hail storm]
2020: 2nd hottest year on record, 3rd most days above 95 degrees, 3 largest wildfires in Colorado history, 7 wildfires that I can name off the top of my head [3 within 40 minutes of me], smoke pollution for July-November.
2021: 3rd hottest summer on record, 5th driest, latest measurable snowfall for Denveron record [mild discrepency in recordkeeping by 3 days] for my area, latest on record [today], most destructive wildfire in CO history, in December. Wettest start to the year ever for Denver.

I think one of the reasonings for my post is because if it can happen to my non-mountain community. It can happen to anyone's. People need to realize this. I don't even know how often we lose non-mountain communities to wildfires because I cannot recall ever hearing of it.


Beautiful area: Thanks. I really love my little neighborhood. I live next to some beautiful houses and the greenbelt is amazing. My realtor tried to get me to buy homes in 2 different areas compared to here, but I decided to compromise on a modest place for a more beautiful neighborhood. Had I bought in either of the others, I would have likely lost my home.

I live in a Flat (apartment) in London and Working from Home during the summer is unviable for me because of cost. Portable Aircon costs a fortune to run. But can't live without it, once sun hits it's unbearable during summer. And this is UK, wet and windy arse end of Europe. I don't think Europe has grappled with future of migration from Africa and Middle East as climate refugees arrive in an attempt to escape an untenble living situation.
 
Scary shit

So I originally deleted this from my post, but when I went grocery shopping I decided to not go to Target because I still had some almond milk left and I had ingredients to make potato soup at home (I stop by Mad Greens a lot when I go to target)

Had I decided to do that, I also would have been in a similar scene. The Target was actually destroyed (I think it will be declared structurally unsafe and demolished) and the Costco survived.
 
Thought this would be appropriate to leave here. This fire was on 3/26, and was called the NCAR fire [thankfully not excessive wind]. A week later another fire started just south [less than a mile] of it, also in a wildfire mitigated area. I did drive this close to it because that's where I spend my time after work. It took place in a wildfire mitigated area. On Friday we had 7 wildfires start in Colorado. It is the windiest April since the 1980s. The town of Monte Vista lost several homes/structures during a fire either last week, or the week before. Colorado Springs had a small section evacuated on Friday, and two towns near Lamar were both evacuated during a large high plains fire. Nebraska currently has a fire that has encompassed over 80 miles of land. Last week I received an evacuation order on my phone for a fire northwest of me [I was not in the evac zone, just received the alert]. There are more that I haven't listed, and it's difficult to keep up with how fragile the situation is right now.

The second picture is from Davidson Mesa, which was the closest the Marshall Fire got to me, the day after the NCAR fire. There are ruins of homes within 200 feet of where I took this picture.
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EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Certain areas of the world are just warmer than others but some communities hurt the situation.
 
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