In The Middle of Boulder County Fire

[ddjchemist]

I happen to be visiting my sister's family in Louisville, CO and the whole area is on fire. We were able to evacuate on time to safety. This is the craziest fire ever. We came yesterday evening from Telluride, CO and this morning were having a good time downtown Louisville taking my 32 months old nephew for a ride on a horse carriage. Around noon we noticed a dark smoke cloud near by that looked like a localized fire. We did not pay much attention to it and we went back to my sister's house around 1pm. By 2pm smoke was all over the place and police was going around the neighborhood asking to evacuate. We packed in 30 minutes and it took us 2 hours to make it to the safety (local roads got quickly clogged). Now (around midnight local time) the fire is about 200-300 yards from my sisters house (our estimate by monitoring security cameras at my sister's house). A town of Superior (next to Louisville) is almost completely gone. Multiple neighborhood in Louisville and South Boulder are gone. Over 600 houses burned so far. Luckily, there are no reports of any casualties, and that is a huge relief. This looks like an apocalypse. It is scary how fast fire was moving due to up to 100 miles/hours winds. Now the winds calmed down to about 10-20 miles/hour and fire departments started working on extinguishing (or at least containing) fires until tomorrow morning. We are supposed to have a snow storm tomorrow morning (sent from heaven) and hopefully that will put fires down.

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[arakboss]

I happen to be visiting my sister's family in Louisville, CO and the whole area is on fire. We were able to evacuate on time to safety. This is the craziest fire ever. We came yesterday evening from Telluride, CO and this morning were having a good time downtown Louisville taking my 32 months old nephew for a ride on a horse carriage. Around noon we noticed a dark smoke cloud near by that looked like a localized fire. We did not pay much attention to it and we went back to my sister's house around 1pm. By 2pm smoke was all over the place and police was going around the neighborhood asking to evacuate. We packed in 30 minutes and it took us 2 hours to make it to the safety (local roads got quickly clogged). Now (around midnight local time) the fire is about 200-300 yards from my sisters house (our estimate by monitoring security cameras at my sister's house). A town of Superior (next to Louisville) is almost completely gone. Multiple neighborhood in Louisville and South Boulder are gone. Over 600 houses burned so far. Luckily, there are no reports of any casualties, and that is a huge relief. This looks like an apocalypse. It is scary how fast fire was moving due to up to 100 miles/hours winds. Now the winds calmed down to about 10-20 miles/hour and fire departments started working on extinguishing (or at least containing) fires until tomorrow morning. We are supposed to have a snow storm tomorrow morning (sent from heaven) and hopefully that will put fires down.

Glad you guys made it out. Hope your sisters house survives. This is reminiscent of the destruction created in Paradise, CA by the Camp Fire. It is amazing how quickly a city can be destroyed by fire and in December no less.

 

[Flopsweat]

200 yards is scary close. I hope the home is spared. Heck of a story for the nephew later.

 

[kmk1012]

I've been listening to reports from the area, prayers for all affected. We had the fires in the Santiam Canyon come too close for comfort and evacuated briefly. It is no fun at all.

 

[BBQ Guy]

I will keep you guys in my thoughts.
Please keep us updated.

It's crazy how quickly fires move.

 

[ddjchemist]

My suster got lucky. Her house was spared from fire. Here are pictures of some houses just 200-300 yards from her house. According to some estimates, over 1,000 house were lost. Luckily, no reports of human casualties and that is the most important.

 

[kmk1012]

My suster got lucky. Her house was spared from fire. Here are pictures of some houses just 200-300 yards from her house. According to some estimates, over 1,000 house were lost. Luckily, no reports of human casualties and that is the most important.

View attachment 1098662 View attachment 1098663

Dang, looks completely devastating.

 

[Flopsweat]

Good to hear your family came through OK. Thoughts for those less fortunate.

 

[L84Cabo]

Fire moves ridiculously fast and far when it's being pushed by 100 mph winds. Glad you're ok!

Stay safe!

 

[kmk1012]

Fire moves ridiculously fast and far when it's being pushed by 100 mph winds. Glad you're ok!

Stay safe!

I still remember this emergency alert and remember the damaging winds that day. We weren't even worried about the fire as it was so far away. It closed the distance overnight and made us evacuate. We were lucky, plenty of others not so much. Hoping for a speedy recovery to the communities affected by these recent fires.

 

[Mikej]

Seeing the untouched houses so close to the completely burned is a weird sight. Glad Sis came out okay.
I looked a google earth yesterday in the area, and from a street view. How horrifying it must have been seeing a wall of fire coming at that speed from so far away.

This is a look west from Superior. Another view I saw yesterday was in late fall and all that grass was dry.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

 

[ddjchemist]

I live in Seattle, but since I lived in Boulder before moving to Seattle and since my sister lives in Louisville, CO, I often visit the area. This spring and early summer the area got unusual amount of rain, so grass grew taller than usual. From late summer to yesterday, the weather was super dry and free of any rain or snow. Add to it that the area is too crowded and overbuilt. One spark and all area got on fire and no one could do anything about it. Because of the strong winds, firefighters could not do anything until wind calmed later in the night. While walking around my sister's neighborhood, I met a guy whose house and cars burned down (the 2nd picture that I posted). He told me he and his wife loaded most important belongings into the 2 cars, but they lost electricity and could not open garage doors. So, they had to run away on their feet (someone gave them a ride to a safety). They lost everything they had. Life can get tough.

Now I am trying to fly back to Seattle, but my flights are getting cancelled. I was supposed to fly this morning, but my Delta flight was cancelled. They scheduled me on another flight for this afternoon, but that flight was cancelled too. Now I am scheduled to fly back tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully, they won't cancel the flight again. What a vacation I had this time!!

Thank you all for your kind words!!

 

[Provincial]

While walking around my sister's neighborhood, I met a guy whose house and cars burned down (the 2nd picture that I posted). He told me he and his wife loaded most important belongings into the 2 cars, but they lost electricity and could not open garage doors. So, they had to run away on their feet (someone gave them a ride to a safety). They lost everything they had. Life can get tough.

Normally, there is a rope with a handle on it to unlatch the opener so you can open the door manually. I have heard advice to remove the rope in case thieves break a window and use a hook on a pole to open the door.

If these people disabled the emergency release without having another way to activate it, they set themselves up for losing everything.

Something to keep in mind when securing your home.

 

[Flopsweat]

Normally, there is a rope with a handle on it to unlatch the opener so you can open the door manually. I have heard advice to remove the rope in case thieves break a window and use a hook on a pole to open the door.

If these people disabled the emergency release without having another way to activate it, they set themselves up for losing everything.

Something to keep in mind when securing your home.

I can tell you from personal experience that you can hop on a ladder or the back of a vehicle and trigger that catch with a pocketknife in a matter of seconds. There are lots of ways to prop the door open while you drive out too. Just to be clear, this is information, not criticism.

 

[ddjchemist]

I can tell you from personal experience that you can hop on a ladder or the back of a vehicle and trigger that catch with a pocketknife in a matter of seconds. There are lots of ways to prop the door open while you drive out too. Just to be clear, this is information, not criticism.

Probably a panic hit and the guy lost his control. I only talked to him for a couple of minutes as I felt it was inappropriate to ask him any questions and just I let him talk. You could feel from his voice that he was mentally devastated.