Waldo Canyon Fire - Part 2

In my last post, I talked about the first several days of my personal experience with the Waldo Canyon Fire - the fire that would go down in history as the most destructive fire in Colorado history.

As I stated in that post, I really wasn't very worried about the fire. I had complete faith that, while we may lose quite a bit of forest land, our city would be safe. I was very wrong.

Everything seemed fine that fateful Tuesday, until I went outside for my 3p break at my office building. The smoke was really starting to thicken, and as I looked west I noticed that now I could actually see flames coming over the ridge above the scar with the naked eye. I ran and grabbed my camera:

But was I scared yet? Hell no! I just posted the picture on Facebook and went on working. I got some comments from friends asking why I was still there, and I just explained that it still wasn't really that close, I had used a really strong zoom lens to get this picture. Occasionally my coworkers would stop what they were doing to discuss the flames we were seeing, but most of us didn't think about leaving. Guess I still felt like the city was invincible, nothing bad would happen.

By 4 to 4:30p they started announcing the evacuation for Mountain Shadows. We still didn't shut down. The smoke kept getting thicker and thicker, and I was starting to hear a lot of sirens. We had been listening to the helicopters and planes all day, but this was really the first time I had heard actual sirens.  My boss said that they were starting to implement the emergency plan: what to take when we left, what to do about the refrigerated supplies, etc. When 5 pm rolled around, closing time, I asked if they needed me to stay and help shut things down. They said no, and I started for home. The sky gray and orange and the smoke was so thick it looked like night. For a brief instant, I thought about driving back up to Mesa Drive, but decided against it. I thought that I needed to hurry up and get out of the area to make room for all of the people trying to evacuate. The traffic was awful, but it still didn't take me much longer to get home.

I don't think the full extent of how close I was to the fire really hit me until I made it home. When I got home and turned on the news, I found out that the Flying W Ranch had burned to the ground and many other homes were burning. I think I went into shock. That's when it hit me as to how close I had been. They had extended the mandatory evac zone to the area that I worked at. When I later talked to my boss about what happened after I left, he told me how bad it got. He said that embers were falling on his car and everywhere else, and he really wasn't sure if he and my other boss were going to make it out. Still gives me heart palpitations thinking about it.

Next post, I'll go into the days following the fire jump.

Waldo Canyon Fire - Part 1

This has been an absolutely heartbreaking and devastating week for those of us in Colorado.  The Waldo Canyon fire ravaged several neighborhoods in our beautiful mountain side community of Colorado Springs, killing 2 people and incinerating 346 homes. This is only one of many fires happening in our state. It sometimes feels that the whole world is on fire.

When the fire first broke out, a week ago Saturday, it was at a popular hiking trail off of Highway 24. It was not immediately close to any structures, but close enough to several small towns to call for evacuations just in case. By the next day, the fire had grown, but it seemed like the towns were mostly out of danger and most residents were able to go home, with the exception of one housing development called Cedar Heights. (Please keep in mind that this is just my account of the fire based on what I remember, and all details may not be completely accurate.) By Monday, there was still not any containment to the fire and I was a little worried about having to deal with the smoke when I went to work, but I never thought that the fire would spread to our city. I just made sure I had my inhaler, but the smoke was never bad enough that day for me to use it. I drove to Mesa Road on my lunch, which overlooks Garden of the Gods, to see if I could get pictures of the smoke, and I did. Several areas had been closed as a precaution, but there had been no more evacuations.  The containment information didn't look promising, but from what I saw, everything looked like it was under control.

Tuesday morning was a little worse, but still didn't seem to be enough to really worry about. They had managed to keep the fire from spreading to the Cedar Heights development that everyone was worried about. The fire had spread and the smoke was worse (I had to use my inhaler twice) but I still went to Mesa Drive at lunchtime to take more pictures. I even got some good ones of the helicopters and the C-130 dumping retardant.

Little did I know what would happen just a couple of hours after these pictures were taken. I will post Part 2 tomorrow - I have to do this in pieces, it's just too emotional.