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'Absolutely devastating' Colorado wildfire burns hundreds of homes near Boulder
nbcnews.com ^ | 12/31/2021 | Tim Stelloh and Minyvonne Burke

Posted on 12/31/2021 4:54:22 AM PST by Scarlett156

Hundreds of homes burned and tens of thousands of people were evacuated after a rare wind-driven wildfire tore through suburban neighborhoods in Colorado on Thursday, authorities said.

Gov. Jared Polis declared a state of emergency in the area, calling the blaze — which ballooned to 1,600 acres in a few hours amid 100-mph winds — “absolutely devastating.”

After toppled power lines started the grass fire around 11 a.m. south of Boulder, the flames quickly spread through the towns of Louisville and Superior, Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said during a news conference.

“This was consuming football field lengths of land in seconds,” Pelle said. “This was a horrific event.”

No deaths or missing persons had been reported, though he said he wouldn’t be “surprised if we find casualties.” One police officer was injured by flying debris, he said.

By 5 p.m., the fire had incinerated an entire subdivision of 370 homes in Superior and likely destroyed another 210 homes in the community’s old town neighborhood, he said. A hotel burned, a shopping center was in flames and the blaze was blocks from a hospital.

(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Colorado; Unclassified
KEYWORDS: boulder; colorado; disaster; fire; weather; wildfire
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To: Guenevere

Also - sorry to add to the previous post - Louisville is rural, but not small, so lots of folks don’t know about the big shopping complexes and stuff. And there are small ranches, big farms, and a lot of businesses. I bought a car in Louisville once!


41 posted on 12/31/2021 7:38:36 AM PST by Scarlett156 (Don't take it personally. I just get bored really easily. )
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To: AuntB

Those folks in the candle factory and other towns/villages in KY, some of whom where working when the giant tornado struck? We had already been experiencing very high winds where I live (mountains in Colorado - it’s an area a lot of people call “North Park”) up until that point, and then learned of devastating tornadoes in the east.

I thought the tornadoes wouldn’t be the worst of it. The forecast here called for “moderate winds.” Yep. And COLD. I’m looking at a haze of smoke on the mountain view from my house. I guess the Louisville fire is out, or mostly so. Some people only had minutes to leave.


42 posted on 12/31/2021 7:44:41 AM PST by Scarlett156 (Don't take it personally. I just get bored really easily. )
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To: Born to Conserve
Most of the houses that burned were not far from the Boulder Turnpike which had been built decades ago. These were not houses built in the forest or in the middle of a grassland.

I suppose we could blame Boulder. A long time ago they decided that they would surround their city with a greenbelt so that the rest of the Denver metro area would not be able to encroach on them. They spent a bunch of money buying up ranch and farm land to make this happen. If they hadn't all that land would have been filled with homes with more Californians, and Colorado would have gone Blue even sooner.

Just another example of good intentions going bad.

43 posted on 12/31/2021 8:06:58 AM PST by who_would_fardels_bear (This is not a tagline.)
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To: Born to Conserve
" I’ve never been to Boulder. It must be horrible."

We visit Boulder regularly, since our son is there. It's not a horrible place at all. It is in a beautiful setting, and it has all the virtues of a prosperous community. It is clean, offers excellent educational and medical services and excellent shopping for many things. I'm not a big shopper, but I like shopping there for outdoor recreation.

The downsides of Boulder are somewhat political, and ultimately economic. It is a very liberal community, due in good measure to the university. There are also a lot of people migrating from California and the east coast. Boulder is heavily anti-2nd amendment. If it weren't, perhaps the shooter at the King Soopers grocery would have been stopped sooner. We'll never know. Gun ownership in Boulder involves local restrictions and is generally frowned upon by many locals.

Although the views are gorgeous, air quality can be poor due to wildfires in the state and further west. They get smoke from California fires. There are lots of dead trees in the Rockies due to pine beetles. You can drive past miles and miles of standing dead timber. The thought of being there during a lightning strike is pretty sobering. They're not done with wildfires. Boulderites are very serious about climate change and tend to attribute many things to mankind's depradations upon nature. If you're there, it doesn't pay to debate these issues.

Boulderites embrace the outdoors. That's a really nice thing. I like it too. Boulder has a commitment to outdoor recreation. They have a lot of open space for recreation - also a nice thing. There is a green belt (brown during drought) around Boulder so that everyone has ready access to bike paths, hiking, dog walking, etc. Nobody can build in the green belt. Building heights are restricted so that everyone in Boulder can see the mountains. Also very nice. The problem with all these nice things like green space and building restrictions is that it drives up the cost of housing. Boulder has one of the highest real estate markets in the nation. People still want to live there, so the areas outside the green belt are getting heavily developed. (Last night some of those places burned.)

If our son stays in Boulder after the stresses of wildfires and having his grocery store shot up, we'll still visit. I don't see us ever moving there. It's too expensive and too restrictive for our taste. It is beautiful though, in a planned community sort of way.

44 posted on 12/31/2021 8:24:48 AM PST by Think free or die
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To: sasquatch

Morning.

160mph?

Yikes!

Highest we’ve had is 115mph for four hours. I do not want to relive that.


45 posted on 12/31/2021 8:45:46 AM PST by mad_as_he$$ (Serpentine...Serpentine...)
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To: Scarlett156

we live about 20 minutes north of this fire and could easily see the massive smoke plume ... this fire is REALLY bad news: this is not a mountain fire in a sparely populated area, but instead is an urban fire burning out of control in heavily populated suburbs ...

we’ve had almost no moisture for months and have had very high winds every day for the last 2-3 weeks, so it started out as dry as i’ve ever seen it in this area since i moved here 37 years ago, and these continuous warm dry winds have dried it out even more ... the fire potential here is explosive and my fear is we could see more of these devastating fires ...

we live just a couple of miles east of the foothills in a semi-rural area not dissimilar to Marshal, and are reviewing our bug-out list and plan because a fire like this could potentially spring up in our area as well ...

SUPPOSEDLY we’ll be getting a bit of moisture for the first time Friday (it just started to snow a tiny bit) and Friday night, maybe a few inches of snow total ... that’ll probably help some, but if these winds keep up, the moisture could be gone in just a few hours ...

and yes, totally devastating ...


46 posted on 12/31/2021 8:52:45 AM PST by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: 2nd amendment mama
"How is having a backup generator wasteful? And with a screen name like "Think free or die" I would think that you'd support a person taking responsibility for themselves as a positive. Guess you don't really believe in that."

Hmmmm . . . I guess I shouldn't write before my second cup of coffee, since that wasn't clear. I have no issue with people buying generators, nor did I intend to suggest that. What is wasteful is putting above ground electric lines in places where they have a high probability of being damaged by normal local weather conditions. It is wasteful to put residents in a position where they are repeatedly without power and independently duplicating services that are being paid for through (expensive) utility bills. It would be more efficient to bury some of those lines and prevent the damage, disruption, and expense of frequent large-scale outages. If you've ever lived in a place with ice storms or tropical storms, you may have experienced this. As to being ugly - it's not the generators that are ugly. Overhead lines and poles are ugly, and in places like the front range, they mar otherwise gorgeous vistas. Yeah, I know we have photoshop now, but wouldn't it be nice if we didn't need to do that?

47 posted on 12/31/2021 8:58:59 AM PST by Think free or die
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To: mad_as_he$$

error.
147, not 160


48 posted on 12/31/2021 10:04:26 AM PST by sasquatch
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To: Scarlett156

When the jet stream descends and destroys our infrastructure, we are reminded of our place in nature.


49 posted on 12/31/2021 10:14:46 AM PST by JustaTech (A mind is a terrible thing)
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To: JustaTech

You know what kind of fish live in a jet stream?

Flying fish.


50 posted on 12/31/2021 10:17:59 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer”)
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To: Trumpet 1

Spot on. To bad there is not a way for proglibs to spontaneously combust.


51 posted on 12/31/2021 10:32:50 AM PST by robowombat (Orthodox )
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To: Think free or die
Boulderites are very serious about climate change

Nobody is surprised they say that, but what does it mean? Sounds like an excuse to fund things that have nothing to do with the real causes.

52 posted on 12/31/2021 10:36:16 AM PST by ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas (Re-imagine the media!)
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To: Trumpet 1

“...garden hoses...”

All well and good in summer. Winter in Colorado - most homes have likely turned off and drained the outside water outlets, to prevent frozen pipes and bursting.


53 posted on 12/31/2021 10:42:09 AM PST by castlebrew (Gun Control means hitting where you're aiming!))
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To: ridesthemiles
Those fires were in KANSAS

Not so. I can look at the black from the burn north of my house. 80 acres of my land were burned by the Cameron Peak fire. There were a couple other 200,000 acre fires north west of that close to Laramie Wy.

54 posted on 12/31/2021 11:01:06 AM PST by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: hinckley buzzard

Re: 33 - Thanks for mentioning this.


55 posted on 12/31/2021 11:32:43 AM PST by Fury
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To: mad_as_he$$
After toppled power lines started the grass fire around 11 a.m. south of Boulder...i

Don't see how this can be blamed on the power co.

56 posted on 12/31/2021 11:37:54 AM PST by upchuck (The longer I remain unjabbed with the clot-shot, the more evidence I see supporting my decision.)
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To: Guenevere

My daughter lives in Longmont, and a brother in Loveland. The daughter posted a video of Chuck E Cheese’s when folks were enjoying the time with their families and then they couldn’t get out because the wind was blowing so fiercely.

My brother seems to be in an area where nothing happens, including weather.

‘Face

;o]


57 posted on 12/31/2021 11:56:42 AM PST by Monkey Face ("I have never insulted anyone.I simply describe them, acurately."Dame Maggie Smith/Downton Abbey)
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To: Scarlett156

Boulder is where the U of Colorado is, isn’t it?


58 posted on 12/31/2021 12:12:49 PM PST by RetiredArmy (Free Will. GOD gives you the choice I accept or reject Him! Choose Him. It depends on you.)
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To: Think free or die

Same here in the south. Every time a tornado comes through, thousands are without power for days, weeks, see Louisiana this past hurricane season, took months to get the power back on. We have had new poles put up around here three times in the past four or five years because of tornadoes.


59 posted on 12/31/2021 12:16:07 PM PST by RetiredArmy (Free Will. GOD gives you the choice I accept or reject Him! Choose Him. It depends on you.)
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To: Scarlett156

We were there yesterday for my sister’s funeral which started at 11:00 am about the same time the fire started. The smoke was black and terrible. The winds @ 110+ mph was even worse. While we were driving the winds not only blew our car over one lane, it also blew a Walmart 18 wheeler over on its side right in front if us. It was not a fun day.


60 posted on 12/31/2021 12:18:42 PM PST by Balata (Structure determines Function)
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