More fires!!

[Funrover]

It's just getting worse and worse. Sheep Mountain between Tabernash and Granby is now 300+ acres burned and 0% contained. It's just a tinder box up there from all the beetle kill. Hope nothing happens to anyone.

[Pathrat]

Maybe a few things need to burn though. Driving through Devils Canyon a few weeks ago I thought, Man, this is a fire waiting to happen. Maybe loggers could use the old logging roads we ride on and do some reclamation work on all the downed wood, or is the financial return not worth the effort? I don't want to see anyone hurt or lose their homes, but it sure seems that the Forest Service needs to ramp up their fire management, like they are saying.

[Rob]

the financial return not worth the effort

That's likely the reason it's not been done. Those small trees aren't worth much for lumber.

[Patrolman]

I noticed the very orange sunset and smoke/clouds. I haven't had a chance to watch the news, but figured there must be another fire.

[KnuckleHead]

Saw it on the news at noon.... wondering what started this one...? Seems like we had a summer free of fires and now they are all hitting at once....

[Brody]

Well, like beetle kill, a lot of fires are cyclic. Without fires, there ends up being very little top soil for new growth, etc, etc. Just part of the process. The Hayman Fire would have started with a lightning strike if that lady hadn't done it. We were all over that area doing rock climbing prior to the fire and it was a tinderbox. The same thing is happening now with the serious lack or rain and the huge amount of beetle kill. Sooner or later we are either going to have a mess of fairly large fires, or one very large one. Then all the beetle kill will be gone, and a new cycle will start all over.

Just sucks that there are many many people that will be affected by the fires, no matter where they are.

[AccordRanger]

http://www.dailycamera.com/boulderdomefire/ci_16463901

[Roostercruiser]

I had alot of friends lose there homes to the Highmeadow fire awile back. Now its regrowing beatifully up by Pine .

[Brody]

When 32,000 people leave or are evacuated from their homes, you have some serious fire problems:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/27/us-usa-wildfires-idUSBRE85L1DD20120627

And more:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2012/06/27/wildfire_devours_structures_in_colorado_springs/

NASA Colorado image:

NASA satellites see wildfires across Colorado (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120626163842.htm)

Denver Post:

Colorado wildfire: High Park Fire tally is 257 houses, some residents go home - The Denver Post (http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_20940986)

I cannot believe that it is going to get better without some rain or a break in the weather. I feel sorry for all the people who have lost homes and more, and hope that this isn't the year that everything west of the Divide off I 70 doesn't go up. That whole area through there has been a tinderbox for years. If that area catches on fire, it would probably dwarf all the rest of the fires we have had, especially in the amount of high dollar real estate it destroys..

I pulled the picture off of my FaceBook page, something that Val posted. Scary. Not something I would want to look out my window and see. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120626163842.htm) From Chad Jock on Rudy Ridge in Colorado Springs. Wow!

Fires have affected more than ten states in the western US:

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2012/June/Vicious-Wildfires-Spread-to-Colo-Tourist-Centers/

NASA satellites see wildfires across Colorado
(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120626163842.htm)