Colorado fires

[Shanazel]

My daughter says the fire in Boulder County is a very, very bad situation. It came on hard and fast from downed powerlines in hurricane force gusts, one clocked at 115 mph. 0% contained. The town of Superior has been essentially obliterated. Louisville is burning. Parts of Lafayette are burning. Other full town evacuations are pending. She had to go into the fire area multiple times to tell idiots who resist evacuating that they need to leave. My personal feeling is people who make the decision to resist evacuation orders should just be left to burn without any expectation of other people risking their lives to urge them to comply or rescue resisters later. Daughter has fairly significant smoke inhalation and is headed out of the fire area. My son is on deployment and waiting to get called down there.

Sometimes having family in first responder positions sucks.

 

[Suzanne Azhaar]

Hoping your family is able to heal soon. Agreed, Darwinism should be allowed to occur. I'm sorry about the loss of life and property, too soon for accurate numbers to be posted. What a terrible way to begin 2022. Have a dear friend (retired dancer who is seriously physically disabled) whose home and property was spared; stated it was simply 'luck and wind direction'. Guess I'm wishing everyone safe from plagues, floods, and fires. Quite biblical out there.

 

[Shanazel]

I'm regarding the fires as ending 2021, which has been a fever blister of a year in some respects, rather than beginning 2022. Regarding 2022 as the beginning of recovery makes me feel a little better. I watched videos of the scene, including one in which a professional fire fighter responds to the view of endless lines of burning houses with, "Holy shit, holy shit." Rumors and misinformation abound. A friend in Idaho Springs told my husband that the KOA in Ft. Collins had burned. FoCo is more than an hour north of the burned area.

Daughter is back in the burned area today; son did not have to deploy.

 

[Ariadne]

I read about those fires and winced. It's especially terrible with the time of year.

I hope your daughter is well.

 

[Shanazel]

She's been doing search and rescue for a couple of days which she likes. The death toll has been incredibly low (1 confirmed, 2 suspected) considering the population in the burned area and the speed of the fire's advance. The property damage is incredible.