Thursday’s winds came, but didn’t stay

In aftermath of Colorado's most destructive fire, a calm Friday.

| Sep 10, 2010

The predicted windstorm came Thursday night, whipping up 40-plus mph winds out of the west — but they didn’t last long. It appears the City’s warning of Thursday to prepare for possible evacuation was (shall we say) a bit overly alarmist. Friday morning, residents of various undamaged mountains areas were returning to their homes, while an army of firefighters continued to beat down the fire at its perimeter. [see one reader's rebuttal comment below]

See images of the fire

Info sources


 

Our earlier updates (for the record)

– As of 1 p.m. Thursday, officials are concerned that, though 30 percent of the Fourmile Canyon fire’s fire line is now contained, winds accompanying a cold front expected to hit Colorado tonight could reenergize the fire.

– Officials this morning raised the total of homes listed as destroyed to 169 — the largest single-fire home destruction in recent Colorado history.

– City officials issued a media release at 2 pm Thursday urging residents west of Broadway to be alert for evacuation if possible high winds 6 p.m. through early morning hours push fire toward city. Read City release.

– As the media assembled for the 4 p.m. Wednesday briefing at the Justice Center parking lot, rain began falling slowly. Within 45 minutes, as the briefing ended, it began falling quite hard. This is the best possible news. Some 140 structures have now been destroyed, officials said at the briefing. Future briefing will be held at Boulder Reservoir, excluding the public. Several reporters from insurance-industry publications were among the crowd, as were a small number of displaced residents. Spokespeople declined to give a figure for containment but, judging from the skies, the two-day fire may be near its end.

– Wednesday afternoon the fears were that many more houses have burned. Tankers are flying. Press briefing upcoming at 4, meeting for affected residents and final press briefing later today. As of earlier today, authorities still spoke of “zero containment” of fire. Rain is possible this afternoon, but higher winds are possible for Thursday.

– The Tuesday 4 p.m. briefing revealed 63 structures were found destroyed over only the half of the fire area that was surveyed. Officials described the fire as zero-percent contained. The fire is still being aggressively fought on they ground, while planes with retardand and helicopters with water are bombarding the fire from above. In northwest Boulder, we’re hearing the noise as they pass overhead every few minutes as of 5 p.m. The smoke over Boulder is now very light for whatever reason — presumably a wind shift.

– At a 1:30 p.m. briefing Tuesday, Sheriff Joe Pelle and Governer Ritter revealed that the fire now covers 7,200 acres — twice its earlier announced size — and that 70 subdivisions have been evacuated. There was still no estimate of number of homes destroyed. Ritter declared, “This is still a very volatile fire.” Sheriff Pelle, his voice cracking, said: “We have literally exhausted our local resources. Pray for rain.”

 
 
 
 
 


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6 Comments »

  • Cathy B said:

    As a resident of Foothills Community, I appreciated the formal heads up of a ‘possible’ evacuation because it made real the list of irreplaceable items that I made on Monday. While moving my photos, important documents, etc to a friend’s house last night may seem like an overreaction to some, I’m glad I did it. There’s no way I would have been able to evacuate that stuff quickly in a true emergency because it was scattered. Now when I bring it back to my apartment, I can make it more accessible. The peace of mind has been huge too – I am much less distracted and can focus on work now that I’ve moved that stuff.

    BTW, though the wind didn’t spread the fire last night, where I live the wind gusts have been crazy all afternoon.

    # 10 September 2010 at 1:56 pm
  • Angela Bowman said:

    Please see http://goldhilltown.com/ for updates for Gold Hill Town residents as well as post-fire images.

    # 10 September 2010 at 1:09 pm
  • Bob Wells (author) said:

    Thanks for your comment, Kevin. I think the community will decide in the coming days whether the City overreacted in how it phrased its warning. I continue to believe they overstated the danger. The English language is precise, and they could have referred to, say, “a small but real possibility” that the winds could push the fire into Northwest Boulder. Given that the fire was, by my estimation, a good 2-3 miles away, it would have taken a very mighty blow to get it here! Firefighters had vehicle access to Sanitas and other spots to our west (I live on 4th St.) to (at least possibly) repel the fire, had it come to that. Now…as to “snarky.” I’m a bit sensitive about that. Maybe we all are, because we’re shell-shocked by the rude, abusive language in Daily Camera comments. For my part, as a professional journalist (not a “you kids get off my lawn” angry white male), I did choose my words carefully when I used the term “overly alarmist.” The “shall we say” was sarcastic, and for that I’m sorry. I am cursed with occasional sarcastic outbursts even though I know sarcasm is rarely appreciated. As for that night, my wife (among others) was very frightened; a neighbor was running around taking videos of her possessions and considering renting a U-Haul. Given the (in my estimation) very small likelihood that we were threatened, I think it was unfortunate that so many people were traumatized.

    # 10 September 2010 at 11:56 am
  • Kevin Raeder said:

    I appreciate your pulling together of lots of up-to-date information, but I completely disagree with the comment “It appears the City’s warning of Thursday to prepare for possible evacuation was (shall we say) a bit overly alarmist.” The danger of wind whipping the fire up to cover a large area very quickly was very real, as demonstrated just a few days ago. It’s perfectly reasonable and responsible to recommend (the city didn’t force it) that people *prepare* for an evacuation. Snarky comments based on 20-20 hindsight don’t add to well-being of our community. I don’t see an entry where the boulderreporter took a bold stand by recommending that people *not* prepare for evacuation, so it should keep quiet after the fact, except to express relief that the fire stayed contained and no one had to evacuate.

    # 10 September 2010 at 11:42 am
  • M. Douglas Wray said:

    Superb coverage!! Boulder Reporter is leading the way.

    # 10 September 2010 at 10:46 am
  • Doug Cordier said:

    Congrats Boulder Reporter. I think you had the story of the rain turning the tide on The Fire before anybody.

    # 8 September 2010 at 6:42 pm

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