Victims of Colorado wildlands fire say warning never came

Longmont Times-Call ^ | 03/29/2012 | Kirk Mitchell, Carlos Illescas and Jordan Steffen

[catnipman]

JEFFERSON COUNTY — Families driven from their homes by a fast-moving wall of fire Monday evening said they stayed longer than was safe because authorities told them that the smoke they were smelling was from a controlled burn that was being monitored.

"I thought we weren't going to make it," said Kim Olson, who barely escaped the fire that killed her neighbors, Samuel, 77, and Linda "Moaneti" Lucas, 76. "I thought we were going to die right there."

[catnipman]

Once again, dispatchers poo poo information called in by the citizenry that could have saved the day. Not to mention the idiots that started this fire on purpose when it's been the driest and windiest ever recorded in this area for this time of year, a time when it's extremely dry and windy under normal circumstances. And looks like reverse 911 failed to boot! Heads should roll of course, but all will be covered up and the guilty promoted into higher positions of authority.

[Unrepentant VN Vet]

...not to mention the fact that this newspaper (Longmont Times-Call) is the only, and I do mean ONE AND ONLY real-live NEWSpaper in the entire state.

[nuconvert]

State Forestry has gov’t immunity. The buck will be passed.

[Carry_Okie]

Here is a good example of how wildland fires are managed, pursuant to policies like this one.

[refermech]

At least half of all the major forest fires started here in New Mexico have been “controlled burns” started by the forest service. Government incompetence knows no bounds!!

[prairiebreeze]

The Forrest Service does controlled burns in the area of our CO property, but ONLY in the winter when there is much snow on the ground and light winds.

[OrangeHoof]

My sister’s home is just north of the evacuation area (the only road to and from their mountain goes through the evacuation area) so our family has monitored this closely. This has happened to them before where they’ve literally been close to a wildfire (i.e. the next peak over). Very scary. My heart goes out to all those who lost property but it (along with getting snowed in during the winter) is the risk you take to live among that lush mountain scenery and every resident who lives up there had better know the dangers before they sign the mortgage.

My niece commented that it is a bad sign to her that such a wildfire could happen in March when there is often enough residual snow to keep that from happening.

[444Flyer]

Looks like an epic fail on the part someone. Why weren’t these people warned of the firey destruction headed in their direction? It’s too late for escaping when the fire is barreling down on you and your home.:(

Praise God those people are safe!

[PeterPrinciple]

because authorities told them

---

I do not have an informed comment but the above caught my attention. Something to think about.

In most events there is a chain of several smaller events that bring it together. This could easily have been a non event with no loss of life as many are. It is easy to want to blame someone (human nature). In prior times we would have called these acts of God and blamed him?

I realize my comments don't solve this but more govt and laws won't either. Just been thinking about the proposal to require all pilots to have psychiatric evaluation now, in response the one pilot in the news. Will this solve the problems, nope, just more govt growth and expense. Even conservatives will turn to the govt to solve this "problem"

Watch what laws will be proposed because of this..............

[sforkjoe57]

A few years back, I overheard a conversation between one of the top U.S. Forest Service fire bosses in the country and two young trainees. The fire boss said “the first thing you do when you get on a fire is grab hold of the cash register; that means you maximize the hazard pay and overtime”. Since then, my blood boils every time I here or see a “Smokey the Bear” commercial.

[sam_paine]

My heart goes out to all those who lost property but it (along with getting snowed in during the winter) is the risk you take to live among that lush mountain scenery and every resident who lives up there had better know the dangers before they sign the mortgage. My niece commented that it is a bad sign to her that such a wildfire could happen in March when there is often enough residual snow to keep that from happening.

Having experienced the worst drought in 50+ years in Texas last year where ranchers here paid $150+ for $30 of scarce hay from as far north as NoDak, I can empathize.

But now that we're getting the wet that they need, the shoes on the other foot. Texas will be selling hay back up north to all the ranchers who bought out herds down here.

So the pendulum swings.

[Unrepentant VN Vet]

Anybody within sniffing distance of a farm or ranch in The Great American Desert knows that you’re always five steps away from either the Penthouse or the Outhouse, and that damn raingage is the lock on the door.

I’m not in the market for hay just yet, but I guess we’ll see about that deal in a few weeks.

[vette6387]

“Watch what laws will be proposed because of this.............. “

Exactly! This is always the response of government. In this instance, someone made a bad call on the “controlled burn.” Then compounded the problem by failing to notify people who could have been affected, and as a result people needlessly died. No new laws are needed but someone needs to loose their job for incompetence. That won’t happen. It will be “papered over” with new, needless laws and their attendant additional cost to us all.

[Carry_Okie]

My heart goes out to all those who lost property but it (along with getting snowed in during the winter) is the risk you take to live among that lush mountain scenery and every resident who lives up there had better know the dangers before they sign the mortgage.

This would be correct were it not for the fact that the enviro-NAZIS in the Forest Service often preclude landowners from thinning forest and controlling brush. Literally, they are burning the in-holders out with all sorts of bogus claims and expense.

[catnipman]

“...not to mention the fact that this newspaper (Longmont Times-Call) is the only, and I do mean ONE AND ONLY real-live NEWSpaper in the entire state.”

Not any more. Ed Lehman, the former owner, ran it into the ground by over-leveraging himself in constructing a massive new 23 million dollar printing plant a few years ago, even though the writing on the wall regarding the demise of newspaper publishing was so old it was already rubbing off.

Under financial duress, the Lehmans sold the paper to a subsidiary of Medianews Group, which promptly filed bankruptcy two weeks after the Lehmans completed their deal. Alden Global Capital, MediaGroup’s biggest lender, took over MediaNews Group in a prepackaged bankruptcy. About the same time, Alden bought the Journal Register Company, another major newspaper conglomerate, and eventually combined the two conglomerates under one set of management.

The Times-Call is no longer independently owned, published, or operated. It’s just another tiny cog in a giant conglomerate. Much of what appears in the Times-Call is stuff taken directly from its ultra-lib cousins, The Denver Post and The Boulder Daily Camera. The Times-Call is massively shrunken, massively liberal, and no doubt is hemorrhaging readership as their old subscriber base dies off and no one new signs up.

[Unrepentant VN Vet]

Guess we got out just in time.

Moved back “home” to Montana 15 years ago, and Colorado’s done nothing but go right straight to he** ever since.

Do you suppose I should see if I could work out a Free Agent deal to come back and help get Colorado’s mojo back?

Nah. We’ve got trouble enough with the damn Californians screwing everything up around here now.

(Just like a bunch of raccoons: If they can’t eat it or carry it off, they just sh** on everything so nobody else can use it.)

[catnipman]

“We’ve got trouble enough with the damn Californians screwing everything up around here now.”

It’s the Kalifornians fleeing their worker’s paradise that has wrecked Colorado. They’re like the black plague, bringing death and destruction in their wake as they flee from what they’ve wrought to infect the next hapless area.