Wild Fire - A Brief Overview

As you may have heard by now, last Saturday a wild fire started just west of Colorado Springs. We are about 12 miles from the fire with a good part of the city between it and us, so we are safe. At this point, the fire is about 17,000 acres (25ish square miles), has completely destroyed 346 homes and many businesses, killed 2 people, 10,000 remain evacuated, and the fire is 40% contained. The officials are estimating that the fire will be completely contained by July 16th.

On Sunday the smoke was already starting to affect me, so Micah went on a search for an air conditioner. Since we are also experiencing a heat wave, air conditioners were hard to find. Most places told Micah that it would be at least 2 weeks before they had any more in stock. Micah even called places in Denver and Pueblo (both an hour away but in opposite directions) to see if we could drive up and get one. Eventually Micah found one. Since we closed up the house, I haven't had any more issues with the smoke. Julia hasn't seemed to be bothered by it either, although she is not happy that it has been keeping her indoors. Today we heard, "Outside...icky...smoke" as she tries to express her frustration at not being able to play outside.

Here are some aerial photos of the Waldo Canyon Fire.

Here are some pictures from the first few days of the fire. The first pictures are of the devastation that occurred on Tuesday when 65 mph winds brought the fire into the city. Tuesday has been the only day that the fire has destroyed buildings.

This is a beautifully done montage of the fire. It is a powerful video of what has been happening over the past week.

Please keep our city in your prayers and our state. Colorado currently has about 12 wildfires burning.