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 ...
Impossible you say. If you don't live here don't comment! Some people here used their brains and turned their yard sprinklers on and save there home, while the house next door burned!
Thanks for clearing that up! LOL, I know all about posting before enough coffee.
Wowee. I’m sorry to hear that. Condolences on your family member and I hope future days are better.
Yes. It’s a nice complex of buildings, very pretty against the backdrop of the Flatirons. But full of liberal fuds.
loooooool!!!
I avoid it. My band played shows there once in a while in the 80s/90s but it always sucked.
“How does one water a roof in those winds?”
One does not water a roof. One builds a metal roof over a thermal noncombustible barrier, or slate, or Spanish tiles. One can also stucco the walls or use adobe, and build windows that do not catch fire. There are lot of good ways to build better in fire prone areas. Just not your standard clapboard house with standard asphalt based shingles, and wooden window and door frames.
You could also embed a sprinkler system, or a 5 foot swath of sprinklers that can go on in case of a fire and sprinkle the cheat grass.
Basement Joe
outvotes increase
Obama 2008 McCain 2008 2008 total Biden 2020 Trump 2020 2020 total Obama by of
Boulder 72% 124,159 26% 44,904 171,763 Boulder 77% 159,089 21% 42,501 206,111 34,930 128% God sees you, Boulderites. The righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah didn't catch a break, either.
;-)
We were given no warning in September 2020. I got out with my purse and cat
Do you know if the tower was properly maintained? Had it suffered previous damage? I’ve seen more than one where vehicle and run into the bottom brace and damaged it. Were the bolts that hold the steel superstructure together retorqued on a regular basis? Lastly the power company could’ve decided to turn the power off. Apparently they did that to many customers in the area before the windstorm hit.
I worked up in the Mountain and was based out at Pete Field in Colorado Springs for 5 months in 1970. The wind on the highway leading to the road up the mountain on some days was horrendous, often times nearly blowing my car off the road.
A subsequent survey has revealed no downed lines in the area the fire started. The cause is yet to be determined
Wowee, that’s extremely harsh. I hope you’re doing well now.
I was kinda thinking that but I usually give Boulder such a hard time I decided not to this time.
I hope they find the real cause - everything’s covered with snow today so that will inhibit any investigation.
It snowed like h3ll starting yesterday. That should give them some relief - in the last 3-4 months we’ve (talking about the state, I live a distance from Boulder County) had like maybe one inch of snow.
One of the comments I saw about the wind and the fires mentioned proximity to Rocky Flats. I'd never made the connection before since the decommissioning of that site was in the news decades ago. Rocky Flats was never fully decontaminated, and plutonium and other radioactive species remain in the soil in that area. It is mostly a wildlife preserve now, but it is west of some residential areas south of Boulder. The thought of high winds regularly blowing around radioactive dust doesn't make for a pretty picture. Some of the burned areas are potentially downwind of Rocky Flats. I wonder whether they have elevated radioactivity in the soil? I hope someone thinks to monitor the air quality as cleanup and reconstruction get underway. We weren't planning to move there but if we did, I think we'd be looking north of Boulder, not south.
There were zero humans to put the grass fires out.>>>>>>>>>
Progressive Liberalism is a mental illness. This is not the Colorado I used to know from the 1970s.
” The sky is falling.....RUN FOR YOUR LIVES”
Back in the day a few hundred cowboys would have pissed this fire out in its early stages. Not only that, they would have pissed downwind.
But now Colorado has become a colony of California.Sucks to be them.
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