CO Front Range fires: hope everyone is okay!

There have been some houses destroyed up north of Horsetooth.
Covid19 cases have doubled among firefighters in Larimer county since last week. :frowning:

I have some new 10x12 tarps if anyone local to Fort Collins is in need.

Getting light rain this morning in Longmont. Thank God! Hope it’s helping with all these fires.

2 Likes

Drizzle up here by Fort Collins as well. Not much wind which is even better. It won’t put the fire out, but the firefighters say that now they can play offense instead of defense.
More homes were lost last night up by Storm mountain.

The firefighters have done a magnificent job of establishing a line up by Red Feather and Crystal Lakes thereby saving hundreds of homes there and at Glacier View. The Shambhala Buddist retreat lost some buildings but the firefighters were able to save the Stupa.

Here’s the latest from the local newspaper https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2020/10/18/cameron-peak-fire-update-sunday-what-we-know-wildfire/3681278001/

3 Likes

Light rain this morning, evac order is lifted for us in Longmont. There’s a new fire off of Lefthand canyon though so hopefully it gets contained and stays on the other side of 36 so everyone doesn’t have to evacuate again.

1 Like

[QUOTE][/QUOTE]It’s been overcast all day and I hear aircraft flying over pretty consistently. That’s a good sign. They couldn’t fly yesterday due to the wind, and the fire (up here) is burning in some rugged terrain that requires air support for the fighters on the ground to make progress and to be safe.

I saw someone online offering their clean empty chicken coop for anyone evacuating with chickens. :slight_smile: People are so nice when the chips are down.:yes:

2 Likes

My friends, who almost lost their home in the fires west of Boulder a few years ago, then almost lost it in the flood, has evacuated. FOur Mile Canyon. The mandatory line is just above her house at the top of Long Gulch; she is at the bottom on 4 mile. Praying for all.

According to my sources, the precipitation did not make it up the canyon towards Jamestown unfortunately. Winds are expected to pick up with the cold front coming in. It is way less smoky and I can’t see flames from my place in Longmont as of now.

Prayers for anyone near those fires. I lived in Colorado for years and went to CSU in the 90s. Still have family members there, but they moved out to the eastern plains (Wray) due to cost of living and congestion.

One friend who lives next door to Joder Ranch is still in a hotel with her husband and cats. Horsey friends in the area had evacuated all their critters, but according to Facebook, the ones East of 36 have been allowed back home.

Looks like there’s a new fire near Ward.

Our pony is leased out at Triple Creek Ranch – They evacuated 65 horses in 45 minutes. That’s like 40 seconds per horse. Absolutely amazing. By the time I even heard about it (and I am an hour away), it was done. Luckily the farm is safe and power is back on, and they are moving the herd back in this morning. So grateful to the amazing team they have there!

But that fire (Cal-Wood) is positively dwarfed by the Cameron Peak fire by Fort Collins – We are hosting one horse evacuee and may be taking more. The destruction is unfathomable and heartbreaking, and still going.

1 Like

There have been a lot of aircraft overhead today. They are doing their best with air support before the predicted high winds arrive (again) and make firefighting next to impossible.

It’s 6:22 PM here and it sounds like war zone with helicopters. Not sure, but they may be getting water from Horsetooth reservoir and that is why I’m hearing so many. These firefighters deserve all the credit in the world. Mother nature has been against them for so long, with warm, dry, and windy weather. :frowning:

1 Like

Sending love to my home state. I wish I could send you all some of our rain (PNW) we have more than enough to share.

This feels very reminiscent of the Olde Stage Road fire. I’ll never forget getting the horses out from Joder. We got my horses out just in time before the fire spread to his pen luckily the rest of the barn was spared aside from some of the xc jumps and the 9 horses we had to let loose were found unharmed. It’s wonderful to see so many previous people who rode at Joder. It was/is such a special place that I miss dearly.

Hopefully Colorado gets that Halloween snowstorm soon and that will help knock out these fires.

You must be hearing aircraft fighting the Calwood and Lefthand Canyon fires. Both fixed wing dropping retardant along north side of the fire and helicopter assisting crews on both Calwood and Lefthand Canyon.

Sounds like winds are too high for aircraft to be used on Cameron Peak :frowning: Cameron Peak has a Type 1 Incident Management Team in command. Currently estimated at 204,404 acres with 51% containment. Full containment isn’t expected for another two weeks :eek:

Me? No. :no: I am way North of Lefthand and less than 5 miles from a Cameron Peak fire mandatory evacuation area. Different fires entirely.

They aren’t pulling water from the Horsetooth to take it to the Boulder fire that’s for sure . :no:

We’re burning quite well enough on our own and we need water and retardant to keep the Cameron Peak fire from burning South of Buckhorn Rd. and East of 27. They are trying to put out the 2,400 acre “spot” fire that jumped from the main fire line and necessitated the evacuation of the areas by Masonville down to Devil’s Backbone toward Loveland as well as the entirety of Rist canyon and areas around Horsetooth on Saturday and Sunday.

I saw on Facebook that folks are asking for anyone with spare grass hay to transport it to the Budweiser Event Center to feed evacuated animals.

Agree with skydy.
I’m about 2 miles south of Masonville and we were under Mandatory evacuations. This area, south of Mildred Lane and East to the Devil’s backbone, has been downgraded to voluntary evacuation status. Just 1/2 mile west and 1/2 mile north is still mandatory. So far, thanks to the firefighter‘s efforts, all properties in this area are ok (knock on wood).

Cameron Peak fire update from 10 hours ago, taking about the air support.

“The Cameron Peak Fire is now 204,404 acres and 51% contained.

Firefighting efforts were very successful today, despite near-critical fire weather conditions. There were no impacts to any structures that we are aware of and fire growth over the last 24 hours was only about 100 acres. As IC Dan Dallas put it, “we were finally able to go on offense”.
We flew a lot of aircraft today, putting in over 60 hours of airtime and utilizing several different aircraft from a Very Large Air Tanker (VLAT) to small and medium helicopters. This is a 24-hour operation, as we have both a day and a night shift. Night operations will be conducting some firing operations in Division U; smoke will be visible and should be expected.
We can expect similar weather conditions tomorrow, and a Red Flag warning will begin on Wednesday at noon and continue until Thursday morning.“

I am well aware that Cameron Peak, Calwood and Lefthand Canyon are different fires.

I was basing my comments on www.inciweb.org which, at the time, had been recently updated and said for the Cameron Peak fire that it was too windy for air suppression. Sounds like maybe conditions changed?

Not here. They were flying all day. There have been days that the wind was brutal but not yesterday.
The Cameron peak fire is so extensive that different weather conditions exist in different areas of the fire, and as you know, the weather in the mountains is different from the weather along the front range. :yes:

The local news said that the helicopters were working the spot fire that jumped to Mansonville and Devil’s Backbone and caused the rapid evacuations we had this weekend. The spot fire jumped from the Eastern edge of the main fire. They’re out again today and say they’re making progress.

So the wind begins again on Wednesday.The firefighters just can’t get a break.:no: Mother nature is not making things easy. As soon as they make progress the wind comes up and the fire spreads. It’s a good thing they had so much time to prepare fire breaks up at Redfeather and Crystal lakes.

Glad you are allowed back home. You all have a lot of horses (and other livestock) down there.

COVID is really complicating matters as well. :frowning: There are 43 positive cases among firefighters as of last Wednesday, double the cases from earlier this month.