Asshole arsonist

[Houndsong]

Guy or guys have set about 12 fires in the area in the last week. This one is 3-4 miles from the house.

[William P]

Hope all goes well, Art.

Bill

[DavidG]

Good luck to the firefighters putting them out and the police in finding the bozos. Hope no one suffers property damage.

[Houndsong]

We had to evacuate. Hopefully it's just precautionary but the sheriff came about four and kicked us out. I had been hiking up the opposite ridge behind the house with my brother in law and we were remarking how the plume had really dissipated but when we got down to the house again the wind had shifted out of the east and you could see and smell smoke drifting into the defiles on the pictured ridge. So the wind is supposed to come down out of the north tomorrow but not strongly. That would not be as favorable as the southerly wind of today but it is still more quartering than directly away or at the house. The fire blew up to 2000 acres in a matter of about 2 hours today.

[DavidG]

That's a really gorgeous view...

...'cept for thr fire. Still quite dramatic. Sorry you had to clear out, I hope they get it contained soon & you get back in quickly. What's the likelihood of them finding the peckerheads who've been setting them?

[JimHow]

What the hell is wrong with these assholes? What would be a motive to do something like that?

[JimHow]

Is this your fire Hound?

http://news.yahoo.com/colorado-wildfire ... 18669.html

[Houndsong]

That's the one. The latest has the mandatory evacuation area growing. The fire is moving at northeast and south ends and so they're evacuation large areas now on the south side of US 24 although the fire is still on the north side.

We are at the western extreme of the evacuation zone but there's no telling which it might move. My sister and brother-in-law flew in Friday night we had a road trip planned but now we're cooling our heels in Salida and they'll have to go on by themselves.

[Houndsong]

Well, the fire is heading right up the pass for us and the latest overnight thermal image shows it about 2 miles away. Unfortunately there's nothing in the way of a natural firebreak in that direction. Although the crews are working to establish lines to contain the fire not sure what's being done on that side. Full containment not estimated until mid-July.

Looks like this one might have been an escaped campfire and not the arsonist.

We are directly WNW of the two westernmost active red lobes of the fire, in the large canyon clearly visible, marked with the red arrow. The reservoir is about a 30 minute hike from the house. Rampart Range Road is the visible thin line paralelling the highway down in the pass and between the reservoir and our canyon but the fire has crossed this in multiple locations. Pretty shocking.

[JimHow]

Good grief.

[Houndsong]

One mile above the house completely involved. The fire is completely over the other northeast side and completely out of control.

[JimHow]

Was just watching it on the news. Very scary.

[DavidG]

I'm not one to pray much, Hound, but my prayers and thoughts are with you. This looks really scary.

[dstgolf]

Our thoughts and prayers for your safety and well being are with you. Looks like a lot of peoples homes and livelihoods will be lost/affected.Simply tragic the devastation of forest fires everywhere. This early summers heat and dry conditions don't bode well going forward into the forest fire season in northern Ontario/Quebec as well. Camp fires and lightning strikes are huge problems in these tinderbox conditions.

Good luck and be safe.

[Bacchus]

I take it these pics are of your fire, Hound. Very dramatic and really scary:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... fires.html

[Houndsong]

The fire has abated on our, western side - for now. There is some westerdward creep along slope of the pass but this seems manageable.

Tuesday was really the day when things went nuts with the fire running along the range and almost past our place, but the really bad breakout was at the other end which is where it passed out of Queen's Canyon and got into those subdivisions right above the Springs. They say now just that "hundreds" of homes burned, probably 200-300 anyway.

Back on our end crews having been using and improving our road for a firebreak and have even set back fires to eliminate fuels between us and the perimeter of the fire. Apparenlty they've even enhanced the defensible space around some of the 15 homes in our little inholding. That's a lot of work on our behalf.

The collateral consequences of this though may be quite costly - especially in my situation as I've been working to put this home up for sale. Aside from any possible buyer's aversion to move into a location like this, I'm already hearing about redlining by property insurers. No insurance, no sale, that's for sure.

[Blanquito]

The fire situation in Colorado is insane. I have heard about another 4-5 small-but-dangerous fire outbreaks in the last week, on top of the other big fires including the High Park Fire by Fort Collins. Mercifully, we have received a fair bit of rain this last week in northern Colorado which should help. It's still really hot though.

Sounds like your house is out of danger, Art. That's great news. I've been wondering about insurance, even here near Fort Collins "hundreds" of homes have burned (including one I looked at while house hunting).

[Houndsong]

What I don't get is the obsession with campfires. Some people are really reluctant to impose fire bans because of the fear it will hurt tourism. It's definitely true that it's a big deal for people to come up to the mountains and camp for a week and they want their campfires. Colorado is so dry though, we really have two conditions, dry and extremely dry. And a lot of bozos just don't handle fire correctly even when and where it's allowed. I'm pretty sure I even mentioned it here, it was just two summers ago there was an escaped campfire right on the near ridge in the picture. That one only burned four acres before it was put out.

[DavidG]

Glad to hear your place is OK, Art. We've been thinking about you. The coverage has been just shocking.

[Chateau Vin]

Wow Hound...Didn't get a chance to get onto forum for the past few days. It's unbelievable to have one's home threatened by fire or floods...I agree...When the season is dry, the authorities need to jump in and place some restrictions on camp fire, etc. Hopefully that's it, and everyone and everything is spared....

[Tom In DC]

Glad to hear that things are improved, Hound. With both kids living in Colorado now, we're thinking about all of you folks a lot.

From the looks of your photo, at least you don't have the huge fuel load of dead trees that other areas in CO have. That has to be terrifying for folks living in those parts.

[Houndsong]

Back home last night. Some smoke, but all our homes are intact as is our viewshed. This morning though it's a riff on Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring." Sounds like 90% of the birds have gone. I heard an elk trumpeting last night. Supposedly lots of bears about, looking for food.

[JimHow]

Sounds like things have gotten better, that's got to be a major relief.
Man, this weather. I was in NYC this past weekend, it felt like 120 degrees.

[DavidG]

Glad to hear you escaped any personal property damage. We've got our own little drama here in MD, now about 72 hours without power. At least the office has power, and the basement is pretty cool despite the sweltering temps outside. Power company said this AM that it could be up to a week before they get everyone back online. Hoping that's a worst-case estimate. In the meantime the cellar door is staying closed except for every couple of days to throw some fresh bags of ice in there. Temp rose to 61 degrees at the top of the cellar, 58 at the bottom, and seems to be holding there. Not quite as threatening as a major forest fire bearing down on your abode, but I'll be happy when the AC and cellar cooling units come back on.