Fire in Boulder, CO

[vangogh]

You may have heard that the mountains surrounding the town I live in have been on fire since yesterday morning. About 3,500 acres were burning the last I heard. Ashes were falling on my place for much of yesterday and there's been an ever present smell of fire and a brownish, orange cloud of smoke everywhere.

The sky seems to be clearing some in the last couple of hours, which I hope means firefighters are beginning to contain the fire.

Here are a couple of videos looking down on Boulder from parks in the mountains on good days. The videos are from different mountains only a few minutes apart.

View from Flatirons, Royal Arch, Boulder, CO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ9sazKSmG0&feature=related)

Flagstaff Point in Boulder, CO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi7Pyy3sGdw)

Here's one from town looking up at the mountains

Boulder Colorado - Sunrise On The Flatirons 10/26/2009 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMuSYq2ceKw&feature=related)

Now heres a video of what you could have seen last night. I think the video is from Flagstaff mountain looking in the opposite direction of the Flagstaff video above.

Time lapse night shot boulder forest fire (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfXIqbfehxs&feature=youtu.be)

A number of homes have been destroyed and many more evacuated. Amazingly no injuries have been reported and hopefully none will.

One last video (http://www.9news.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=604458706001#/News/Boulder+Four+Mile+Canyon+fire/49906872001/50183015001/604458706001) from yesterday taken from a town a few miles south of Boulder. Somewhere underneath that big cloud of smoke is where I live.

[KristineS]

Oh wow, those fires do so much damage. We had a couple wildfires in the U.P. last year and they were devastating. I hope they get the fire under control.

[vangogh]

I'm not really seeing the cloud of smoke anymore, which I'm taking as a good sign. I'm not seeing any news that the fire is contained, but I am hopeful it's getting there. They thought it would be a few days. We weren't helped yesterday by 45 mph wind gusts in the area. If the fire had started today instead of yesterday it might never have gotten out of control.

[cbscreative]

I'm glad you and your place are OK, vangogh, but you really need to do something about that smoky smell you're bringing in with you. It might scare off new members.

[vangogh]

I swear I showered before I came by today :)

[cbscreative]

I swear I showered before I came by today :)

I believe you, but getting that smell out of your clothes is a real pain. I'd tell you to burn them, but it smells like you already did.

[vangogh]

Last night and this morning you could smell the fire from inside. I woke up yesterday morning to blue skies and by the afternoon there was no sky to see. The smoke covered the entire town. Earlier I read the fire had grown to 7,100 acres (11 miles) and the smoke was visible 90 miles north in Wyoming. We haven't had much if any rain in about a month. It's very dry here this time of year and when the winds kick in the fire can spread quickly. Over 3,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. I haven't seen word yet how many homes have been destroyed. The last count I saw was a dozen, but I assume it's more at this point.

The good news is no injuries have been reported, which is really amazing.

[vangogh]

A few more images to share.

Here's a picture that I think was taken last night of the Boulder wildfire (http://twitpic.com/2m1ghy)

Here's an image of the cloud of smoke as seen from space (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=45675). You can see where the fire is, where I am in Boulder and how far the smoke has traveled. To give you some context Denver is about 20 miles south west of Boulder.

And lastly here's a PDF map showing the perimeters of the fire (white line) and the evacuation area (black line) (http://www.bouldercounty.org/bocc/FourMileFireWebPerimeter.pdf). I used to live on the very right of this map. My old place was very close to the evacuation. I'm on the other side of town now. From where I used to live on the right side of the map to where the fire started is about a 20 minute drive through the mountains.

We often have fires in the area this time of year, but this is the closed a wildfire has been to town since I've lived here.

[billbenson]

I didn't realize you got that dry in the summers for wild fires. Is this normal weather?

[vangogh]

Oh yeah. It's very dry around here most of the year. The majority of moisture comes in the spring. We get heavy snows in town and the snow that built up in the mountains over the winter melts and flows downstream. By the end of the summer it's dry again. Wildfires are always an issue this time of year. A few years back it was really bad and we didn't start the summer with as much moisture as usual. I think we're out of that drought now, but this is pretty normal. Boulder gets about 300+ days a year of dry sunny days with clear blue skies.

This wildfire is the closest it's ever been to me. It's usually deeper in the mountains of in different parts of the state. This one is hitting home a little more since it's so close. People I know are inside the evacuation perimeter and I've probably been in several of the homes that are no longer there.

Unfortunately the fire started on a day where the wind was kicking and it spread quickly. The wind is moving the fire from one canyon to the next. I don't think they expect it to reach the city of Boulder, but it's pretty close. Tomorrow the winds are supposed to be mostly gone and there's a 20% chance of rain. Hopefully that will help get the containment started.

[Spider]

That recent tropical storm from Mexico is passing us (Houston) and heading north through central Texas. I hope there's some rain left in it by the time it reaches Colorado.

[KristineS]

Hopefully they've gotten the fire more under control. Last news item I saw said the fire had burned 92 structures and that 8 people were missing. I haven't seen any fatalities reported yet.

[vangogh]

Frederick we're all praying for rain here. 20 percent chance we'll get some today, but haven't really seen much rain in the forecast. Try to get everyone in Houston to blow that storm north west if you can.

Kristine I hadn't seen that about the 8 missing people. Hopefully none are hurt. There haven't been any injuries reported so far, which really is amazing. They haven't said all those structures are houses. Some probably aren't, though most likely are. I have a hunch there will be more once they can really get in there. The fire is hitting a couple of reasonably populated canyons.