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 ...
ya, we got 10” overnight!
I’m not gonna complain!
Thermodynamics and radiant heat are a bitch. There are three ways heat moves: conduction, convection, and radiation. The first is not an issue, the second is what most people think spreads that fire, but it is the third, that really drives fires. When a cloud of 500 degree smoke completely covers an area, equilibrium principles make that under the cloud become 500 degrees. To protect houses, you have to remove the fuel a quarter mile upwind, where the smoke is getting its heat.
Not many places are free of significant hazards of one kind or another.
In very high winds and depending on fuels, etc., more than 1/4 mile upwind... But, yes, good points.
Still, homes CAN be built to resist 500 deg. F or more, at least for a while. It tends to be pricey, though.
This is the same as the relatively recent discovery of something called Pyroclastic Flow, which is a rushing mass of superheated gas and particles from an erupting volcano. In 1902, a massive pyroclastic flow from the erupting Mt. Pelee on the Island of Martinique killed about 30,000 people in the major city San Pierre. For a while people who had moved away were given a daily subsidy for food and shelter. When after a few months they were tired of giving this “wellfare” about 2,000 people moved back to a town that the scientists said was still very much at risk from the volcano. There was another pyroclastic flow, and almost all 2,000 were roasted to death.
Were these initially forest fires? If so, why are there no quarter-mile wide firebreaks separating the forests from the home subdivisions?
Boulder is also a HOTBED of support for Antifa and BLM, and is generally anti-American. I suggest conservatives avoid it.
I instinctively avoided it from the get-go although, as noted above, it’s a very pretty place that makes a good impression at first sight.
In the 1970s/80s a lot of punks were right-wing, even though most people today view punk rock as being like hippies, but violent and rude instead of spewing crap about peace and love. (Today the two have merged into one entity that spews crap about peace and love while performing random acts of hatred! But I digress.)
I disliked Boulder (not Louisville and Superior - they’re kinda cool although still full to the gills of liberals when you examine the territory) even though my first impression of it was good. I was a conservative then and I didn’t even realize it!
I will drive miles out of my way to avoid passing through Boulder. And as for setting foot anywhere within it....
The fire started in grassland, not forest. I'm not sure quarter-mile firebreaks would be enough given the high winds. Embers would probably be carried right over the firebreaks, although it might slow things down. The Marshall fire started in what is normally a greenbelt area between Boulder and Denver. I expect it's brown during drought, but in any case it's intended for recreational use and for preventing sprawl.
“Wowee, that’s extremely harsh. I hope you’re doing well now.”
Thanks. Actually, the humiliation and betrayal after was the worst. Jackson County made the decision about 5 hours before it hit us to NOT put out any warning.. they were afraid 10,000 OLD people might panic... panic??? No panic when those flames were coming down our driveways in those mobile home parks.....
This was the city, not the mountains. BLM and Antifa were camping in our local Medford park! We were burned out from all directions.
Then the fundraising by friends came... NO WAY on Facebook... because of my politics, I’d been in their jail.
Gofundme cut off every conservative after a couple of days saying it was not a legitimate cause.
Anyone who thinks the left isn’t persecuting us hasn’t experienced it.
I had no where to go in my county and wound up 4 hours away where I was treated worse than any illegal alien. YOu get in the wrong county after a disaster, and you just don’t exist. My medicare advantage wouldn’t work in another county. It was overwhelming.
Thanks for posting about this. Are you doing okay now? You can send a PM about it. Let me know.
Sad.
An update today re the burning shed pointed to "The Twelve Tribes" as the origin.
I'd post the article but it is on the Denvr Post so it is not allowed here.
The title is "Boulder County investigators narrow Marshall fire’s origin to single neighborhood"
The address reported in the article is near the intersection (93 and 170): 5325 Eldorado Springs Dr
That’s not a group I had heard of before. They actually sound pretty tame for Boulder. I hope they find out how this started
Well, it is a shame, but if it had to happen hopefully it only effected liberal California transplants /s semi
I was just reading about this - via the Independent, so can’t post it here.
Some crazy cultists - “the twelve tribes” are now theorized to have started the fire. The USA Today article reports a local person saying that it was “really clear” the fire started on this property. So, whoever it was that made the $2 bet on “no, it was started by human malfeasance or error,” pick up your $20,000 winnings at the door and congratulations.
Failure to clear debris That the State declined them permission to clear.
Because the ev jackboots in Sac thing Overgrown forests is natural and therefore should be left to its own devices.
PGE Shuts power down now because they got screwed as a scapegoat for Sac’s Ecoterrorist level Environmental laws, and this is how they CYA.
Funny how Kenya has a more stable electrical grid then CA.
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