Boulder, where I live, is at risk of two serious threats. One, the dreaded "One-hundred Year Flood" and two, of wild-fires in its immediately surrounding areas. Yesterday, just after our Daily Camera newspaper published an article by a local weatherman saying we'd had the perfect summer while other locations around the globe had experienced all sorts of weather-related disasters, our potentially worst-ever wild-fire broke out. Unofficially, it was started by an accident with a propane tank and camper vehicle.
The 3,500 acre fire necessitated the evacuation of 3,500 residents living in the canyons beginning only a couple of miles west of town at 10AM yesterday. There were high winds throughout the day. The lost-house count hasn't been done, yet, but it may be high. There are 1,000 homes located in this area. Residents throughout the town opened their homes, animal shelters, and horse acreages to try to accommodate their friends and neighbors who had to evacuate, evidenced by a couple of email lists that I'm part of. An untold number of residents never evacuated. Escape routes are limited.
Around 6 PM last evening, I took these three photos from a high point in South Boulder and on S. Broadway, and watched the busy aircraft fire fighting missions go overhead, as it had been too windy for them to operate earlier in the day. This morning, when I got up, the air quality at my house was very poor, but it quickly improved as light winds shifted. Incidentally, our average annual rainfall here is 19 inches per year and this summer's rainfall has been above average, but this time of year is the driest and the evergreen forests in the canyons provide all the combustible fuel needed to feed a windy fire.
The garden I featured recently was included in the area: An exemplary Garden at 7,400 feet Altitude.
For more from the Daily Camera: here