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<\/p>\nI’ve heard from a lot of friends asking whether we’ve been affected by the fires in northern Colorado, so I thought I’d write a brief update.<\/p>\n
There are multiple fires in Colorado right now, but three of them affect us:\u00a0 Cameron Peak, Cal-Wood, and Left Hand Canyon.<\/p>\n
The Cameron Peak fire is not particularly close to Boulder.\u00a0 It’s due west of Fort Collins, which is an hour drive.\u00a0 However, it’s a monster — the biggest fire in Colorado history.\u00a0 \u00a0It’s been burning for about two months and still only 50-60% contained last I heard.\u00a0 The smoke from this fire has often blanketed Boulder as well as much of northern Colorado.\u00a0 On Friday, I took this photo out of my living room window in the middle of the afternoon.\u00a0 \u00a0 The smoke from Cameron Peak was the worst it has ever been.\u00a0 The second photo was taken from the same window today at about the same time.\u00a0 \u00a0See?\u00a0 I’m supposed to be able to see the foothills from my window.\u00a0 And, no, there was no filter used in that smoke photo.\u00a0 The sky was that color; in fact, it looked worse in real life.<\/p>\n
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The good news for us is that the Cameron Peak fire is an hour away.\u00a0 Unfortunately, on Saturday a new wildfire started much closer to Boulder.\u00a0 Around 12:30 or 1:00 I saw a few puffs of fresh black smoke out my window as I looked north.\u00a0 I could tell it had to be a new fire — it was too close to be from Cameron Peak.<\/p>\n
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Within a very short period of time,\u00a0 it looked like this:<\/p>\n
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This was the Cal-Wood fire, which exploded down the foothills — it burned almost 9000 acres and 25-30 homes in a matter of a few hours.\u00a0 Tanker planes and helicopters flew back and forth over our house all Saturday afternoon and evening.\u00a0 After it grew dark, we could see flames in the distance from our house and from various roads and vantage points in North Boulder.<\/p>\n
Just now, another tanker plane flew overhead.\u00a0 Those guys are amazing — they disappear into the smoke and swirling winds.\u00a0 Over and over.\u00a0 Having this fire blow up so close to Boulder city limits was unnerving.\u00a0 I was so touched at how the community pulled together to help:\u00a0 offering to rescue livestock, provide pasturage, trailer horses, and shelter strangers.<\/p>\n
Last but not least, on Sunday, another smaller fire started up in Left Hand canyon.\u00a0 Firefighters threw everything they had at it right away and it has stayed under 300 acres.\u00a0 Thank goodness for lighter winds and a bit of drizzle in this terrible drought we’ve been in.<\/p>\n
Cal-Wood is now about 15% contained.\u00a0 It’s approximately 4 or 5 miles north of us, but they’ve controlled the southern edge so we feel secure.<\/p>\n
Bottom line:\u00a0 We are safe.\u00a0 We are humbled and grateful.\u00a0 We are on guard.\u00a0 And some of us are knitting.<\/p>\n
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