Colorado is on fire!!!

[traingeekboy]

this is what things look like out here.

http://www.9news.com/news/article/274327/71/LIVE-32000-evacuated-in-Waldo-Canyon-Fire

We have a fire issue...

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_20945863/several-fires-explode-across-front-range

[cleanerg6e]

Some summers we have the same problem as you. All it needs is high temperatures, low humidity and hot dry winds and that's a recipe for a wild bush fire here. Some are started by kids others by campers who can't read the 'NO FIRES WITHOUT A PERMIT or TOTAL FIRE BAN signs. I have bush at the back of my place and that was last burnt in 1993 - 19 years ago. We have what is known as Hazard Reduction Burnings where the Rural Fire Service set light to sections of the bush in winter time to get rid of the build up of dead branches and leaves on the forest floor. Even then sometimes it will be still when they light up and within a few hours a wind blows up and it's all hands to the 'pumps' as the controlled fire burns out of control.

Roy.

[mick]

Hope everything's okay with you Griff. I was concerned when I noticed there had been no recent posts from 'Traingeekboy' but having noticed you'd logged in to the forum last night then I assume that you're well?

We've done nothing but moan about there having been 21 days of rain so far this month here in Doncaster - hardly anything to get worked up about when you take other things into consideration.

[ba14eagle]

I saw the news last night and they showed film of the fires in Colorado. So sad for all those people who have lost everything - you just cannot comprehend what thats like. Stay safe buddy.

[mick]

Didn't realise just how severe and widespread these fires were/are until our local news broadcast a report from an ex-UK man who now lives in Colorado. He's managed to film a series of clips of the approaching fire as it reached and eventually consumed his home and almost all those in his neighbourhood.

Griff? - Where are you located in relation to these fires?

[traingeekboy]

I'm in the main city very far from fires. I did go up to Boulder where I spent my ten years. One could see plumes coming over the front range. it also smelled pleasantly like a camp fire.

Colorado springs is where everyone lost homes. It should be noted that most new homes here are cheaply built and are mostly built of composite materials. They also built those neighborhoods very near pine forest. I sympathize with those who lost homes, but I also have a dark side that has no compassion for people who buy in places that are remote and dangerous and complain when nature does what nature does.

It is not uncommon for us to get gusts up to 70 mph, combine that with a forest fire and it's all over.

We've had nothing but rain the past few weeks. Which is good for my garden. But the rain will bring a huge amount of undergrowth, so we can expect more fires as soon as we get back to the usual 2% humidity and 95 degrees. I'm city boy, I am safe in my little victorian hovel.

[cleanerg6e]

We have the same thing over here where people build in bush locations and think 'how lovely with all these tall eucalyptus trees right next to the house'. But those trees are full of eucalyptus oil and when a wild fire comes through the oil in those same trees heats up and explodes in a mass of flames. Once they put an industrial thermometer into a wild fire and the temperature was over 2,000 degrees celsius. Near to where I live is a place called Hawkesbury Heights. A wild fire came roaring out of the national park up the steep valley sides (which are near vertical) right towards the houses built on top of the escarpment. Red hot embers were flying ahead of the fire and went over those houses and set fire to the houses and gardens on the other side of the road. Those people who remained fort the fire on their land only. If their next door neighbours house caught fire and their neighbour had gone away, too bad. They only had a domestic garden hose pipe to fight the fire coupled with falling pressure due to the fire fighters using all the fire hydrants in the street.

Roy.