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"Wind gusts as high as 76 mph fueled explosive growth of the Cameron Peak fire west of Fort Collins on Wednesday, helping push the 2-month-old wildfire across nearly 23,000 new acres and making it the largest in Colorado’s recorded history.
The wildfire, which ignited Aug. 13 and survived more than a foot of early September snowfall, grew to 158,300 acres, or about 247 square miles, on Wednesday, firefighting officials reported in an evening briefing.
The fire remained 56% contained, sending towers of smoke billowing over Fort Collins and much of the northern Front Range throughout the day.
Wednesday’s growth led to new mandatory evacuation orders in the Larimer County foothills, affecting mainly recreational properties — including hundreds of mountain cabins — in and around the communities of Glen Haven and Drake east of Rocky Mountain National Park.
“It was a bad day,” Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith said at the evening briefing, “but it very easily could have been a lot worse.”
The fire’s growth Wednesday pushed it from No. 3 on the list of Colorado’s largest wildfires straight to No. 1, surging past 2002’s Hayman fire, which burned 137,760 acres, and this summer’s Pine Gulch fire, which scorched 139,007 acres on the Western Slope north of Grand Junction.
The giant wildfires across Colorado this season come amid a changing climate, with record temperatures, low relative humidity and statewide drought combining to fuel fire growth — part of a 20-year cycle of aridity that’s led to more expansive wildfires, including all 10 of the largest fires in the state’s recorded history.
In the evening briefing, Smith acknowledged “we lost structures today,” but said officials don’t yet have a count. No injuries or deaths were reported, he added.
The Cameron Peak fire previously had damaged or destroyed 95 buildings, including 33 homes, according to authorities.
Incident commander Dan Dallas warned residents to be prepared for the potential for more fire growth Thursday.
“Things will calm down a little,” he said, “but we’re expecting almost if not as much wind tomorrow and on into the next day. We’re not through this wave of activity yet.”
Firefighters don’t expect to see the wildfire push toward Estes Park to the south, or directly threaten Loveland and Fort Collins to the east. “We really don’t see anything to lead us to see a fire that made it into the cities around here,” Smith said.
On Wednesday, sustained winds above 50 mph drove the Cameron Peak fire east and south, with flames bursting through huge strands of lodgepole pine and massive amounts of beetle-kill pine trees.
“It’s been relentless, driven by winds and burning through beetle kill,” said Cass Cairns, a public information officer with the Cameron Peak firefighting efforts.
Overnight and for much of the day Wednesday the fire raced through a huge section of the Arapahoe and Roosevelt National Forest.
The rapidly spreading fire forced mandatory evacuations in the communities of Glen Haven, Glen Haven Retreat, Storm Mountain and Palisade Mountain, according to the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office. Additional mandatory evacuations were ordered in the afternoon for the Bobcat Ridge Natural Area, Horsetooth Mountain Park, Overhill Drive, Milner Mountain, Lory State Park and Masonville.
“Evacuate the area immediately and as quickly as possible,” the sheriff’s office said. “Do not delay leaving to gather belongings or make efforts to protect your home or business.
Masonville is about 15 miles southwest of Fort Collins and other evacuated areas are also in the foothills west of city.
Smoke filled the skies around the fire for much of the day Wednesday, creating an orange glow at time and casting darkness at other times. In Fort Collins, brown particulate-laden smoke spilled into the city Wednesday morning as the fire spread, worrying residents.
“We had a huge wildfire in Brazil, too,” said Colorado State University graduate student Renan Casagrande, 32, from São Paulo. “Way bigger than here. We know temperatures are going higher. … I don’t know what we are going to do.”
Casagrande checked on horses at CSU’s Mountain Campus campus in the late afternoon as winds shifted. “It feels bad. Nobody likes to breathe smoke. This morning, it was terrifying. You smell the smoke, it is sad that everything is burning.”
Peak wind readings at weather stations in the fire area on Wednesday, according to Cairns, included:
76 mph at Comanche Reservoir with winds between 50 to 60 mph
73 mph at Deadman with sustained winds between 50 and 70 mph
62 mph at the CSU Mountain Campus with winds between 40 and 60 mph
54 mph at North Red Feather Lakes
The extremely strong and steady winds, overnight and into the day, kept firefighting aircraft on the ground for safety considerations, Cairns said. One plane with infrared sensing technology, used to map the massive fire, did take off.
Voluntary evacuations were posted Wednesday for the Redstone Canyon area, Otter Road (Buckskin Heights) and County Road 52E from County Road 27 east to include County Road 41 and Stratton Park, the sheriff’s office said.
A new spot fire sparked south of Bellaire Lake, on the northeast side of the fire, and firefighters worked to keep it from jumping Manhattan Road, officials said.
On the southeast side of the fire, near the CSU Mountain Campus, the fire has pushed east about 5 to 10 miles, driven by strong winds. The fire crossed Pingree Park Road into the Buckhorn drainage heading towards Stove Prairie.
“Buckhorn road is a main area the fire has followed along,” said Wayne Patterson, a fire information officer with the Cameron Peak firefighting effort. “There’s a lot of old lodgepole pine and a lot of old pine beetle kill in the area.”
Winds, tinderbox forest conditions and extremely dry weather combined to fuel the fire Wednesday.
“It’s unusual that this is happening in October,” Patterson said. “We are usually not as dry as we are now.
Relative humidity in the fire area has been in the teens or lower for about a two-week consecutive period, with a one-day break, and the extreme weather pattern is taking a toll.
“There are lots of big logs out there that will serve as a source for the fire for a long time yet, until we get an awful lot of moisture,” Patterson said.
The extremely active fire is now also atop Signal Peak, northwest of Glen Haven.
On Wednesday, power was turned off, as a safety precaution, to customers of Estes Park Power and Communications “from the top of the switchbacks through Glen Haven and down CR 43,” according to Estes Park officials.
Strong winds and relative low humidity are back in the forecast on Thursday afternoon through Saturday. Temperatures will be close to seasonal norms on Friday with a gradual warmup through the weekend. A cool front is expected to arrive next week."
Crazy to the think that between the Cameron Peak Fire and the High Park Fire, basically all the forest between Fort Collins and the Continental Divide disappeared within a decade.
The Cameron Peak Fire is making another run due to high winds. Mandatory evacuations went out an hour or so ago for the Highway 34 corridor from the Dam Store to just west of Soul Shine Road (that's about 3/4 of the way up the Big Thompson Canyon). The fire is moving so rapidly that they pulled some of the crews out of the area. This fire may end up making a moonscape out of most of the Poudre and Big Thompson Canyons.
The Heil Valley Ranch and Hall Ranch have also been closed due to the fire
Residents of Jamestown in Boulder County are being told to evacuate due to the new CalWood fire, emergency officials said.
Crews responded Saturday afternoon to fight the fire near the Cal-Wood Education Center, 2282 Boulder County Road 87, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office tweeted.
"A fast-moving, rapidly growing wildfire erupted Saturday and expanded to more than 7,000 acres in northwest Boulder County, Colo., prompting the evacuation of at least 2,000 homes and sending hikers and campers fleeing to safety. The conflagration grew rapidly, exhibiting extreme fire behavior, including rotating columns of flames and smoke and an orange glow that was visible for miles as 60-mph winds blew the blaze southeastward.
The small community of Jamestown, about 15 miles northwest of Boulder, was completely evacuated Saturday, and the town of Lyons, home to more than 2,000, is under an evacuation warning on Sunday. According to the Boulder Office of Emergency Management, “An Evacuation Warning is when a public safety official issues a warning that there is a high possibility of an evacuation due to a wildfire that poses a risk to life or property.”
At least 2,000 properties were in harm’s way, ... "
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"The CalWood fire started Saturday and quickly grew to the largest wildfire in Boulder County’s history, burning between Jamestown and Lyons. Nearly 3,000 residents were evacuated Saturday afternoon as the smoke plume billowed over the Front Range.
A map updated as of 9 a.m. Sunday showing the CalWood fire evacuation zones (in red), pre-evacuation zones (in yellow) and closed roads, as well as the footprint of the fire itself which is currently at 8,788 acres.
The fire stood at 8,788 acres Sunday, or about 13 square miles. Firefighters were working to build direct containment lines to stop the fire’s spread, aided by calmer winds and more humid weather, Division Chief Mike Wagner with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said at a midday briefing.
Wagner said Sunday night there have been 26 homes lost in the fire, most of them on the eastern side of the fire, but the list was not complete. No additional structures had been lost Sunday, Wagner said.
The perimeter of the fire did not grow much Sunday, and the fire was 15% contained by the evening. About 250 firefighters were working the blaze.
Wagner said Sunday evening that night operations would be patrolling for flare-ups and hot spots. He said the northern ridge was the most concerning part of the fire because of rocky, steep terrain.
Wagner added the Rocky Mountain Type 2 incident team was taking over operations Monday morning.
Walsh said three of seven homes in her neighborhood were destroyed.
Evacuation centers remain open at both Boulder County’s North Broadway Complex at 3460 N. Broadway and, for livestock, the Boulder County Fairgrounds at 9595 Nelson Road in Longmont."
"“The 2020 fire season is looking unlike anything we’ve seen before,” said Russ Schumacher, a climatologist at the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University. The uptick is driven in part by hot and dry weather, he said.
“Normally by this time of year we would have more periods of cooler temperatures and some more precipitation,” he said.
More large wildfires have started this month than any other October in recent memory, he said. A warming climate, forest management and weather have all contributed to this year’s fire activity. All of Colorado’s top 10 largest wildfires have burned in the last 20 years, including two this year. The largest fire in state history, the now more than 203,000-acre Cameron Peak fire, continues to grow and is about 62% contained.
“As of the late 1980s, what was considered the largest fire on record was 15,000 acres, and now we’ve seen several fires just in this month get close to that,” Schumacher said. “And Cameron Peak is shattering the record, with much of that growth happening in October.”"
We also had this post come across as a way to support feeding the firefighters. https://www.facebook.com/11969820805...0084934345810/ Feed the Firefighters. Many of you have reached out and asked how you can help. Starting yesterday into last night and again today the St Vrain Market is providing sandwiches, fruit, bars, drinks, etc to the crews in Lyons on the Cal-wood fire and the crews in Loveland on the Cameron Peak fire. If you would like to help by purchasing sandwiches for these crews, please reach out to the St Vrain Market and make a donation. 303 823-5225 or via Paypal at orders@stvrainmarket.com. TY!
Keeping these men and women on the front lines fed keeps us all safe and feels good to be able to help. Thanks and stay safe.
Locally people with land are taking horses and campers on to their land and providing them with power and water/shelter for the horses. An effort was mobilized to create relief packages for the firefighters with needed supplies like extra socks, baby wipes, shower in a bag, hand warmers, protein bars etc. that are going directly to firefighters via their relatives as apparently goods donations aren't useful for this type of fire activity as they clog things up.
Greenwood Wildlife Center has some info on how to help the fleeing wildlife. We recently had a bobcat and some kittens on a local trail near our house. A jogger took pictures of them. This is highly unusual and likely wildlife fleeing the fires. https://www.greenwoodwildlife.org/wi...and-wildfires/
Boulder Humane Society says they don't need goods or volunteers but are accepting money for their emergency safety fund. https://www.boulderhumane.org/
Thank you for the post so we can all pitch in for our fellow Coloradans.
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