It moved incredibly fast. I was just in the area early this afternoon, and there was a grass fire up in the hills. I did my errands, and less than two hours later Superior was under a mandatory evacuation order, and the grass fire was 1600 acres.
This was fuelled by 100+ mph wind gusts. I was driving 35mph and being passed by tumble weeds.
So yeah, leave the house for normal reasons and before you can even finish at the grocery store you’re under mandatory evacuation.
It was moving the distance of a football field in seconds.
From the Sheriff’s press briefing today –
They can’t fight the fire in hundred mph winds. Focus is on saving lives. They anticipate being able to fight it tomorrow when the wind is not as high.
Hundreds of homes and structures are lost. No known losses of life, but he said it would not be surprising, given the ferocity of the fire.
This was caused by a massive downslope wind apparently knocking down power lines, and then spreading the fire at a terrifying rate.
Thanks for people explaining the issue. That’s one thing I love about this board, people explain things and don’t just reply sarcastically.
Aye; the doorbell cam video linked upthread shows just how fast the fire has been able to move:
My family is safe in Brighton tonight; I was very glad to hear that they were able to get a hotel room for 3 people, 2 cats and a bird.
My sister said she’s heard that at least one hospital was burned, along with hundreds and hundreds of homes. They are hoping that things take a turn overnight and that their home isn’t destroyed before the expected snowfall begins.
I’ve got family in Louisville that have evacuated. Others in Lafayette waiting the evac order. My brother is in Boulder and taking in family.
Crazy shit. IIRC Denver/Boulder has not had precipitation since August.
The Office of Emergency Management guy at the briefing said firefighters would pull into a neighborhood they thought was ahead of the fire, and the heat would start peeling the stickers off their truck.
@Snowboarder_Bo I’m glad your family has a safe place to stay. I hope there’s good news for them tomorrow.
Number I just heard was 7.5 hours from the start of a grass fire, to 500+ homes burned.
This is already the most destructive fire in Colorado history. It is a wild fire that is moving through a suburban neighborhoods and jumping house to house, instead of in a forest and moving from tree to tree.
I have friends in Lafayette waiting for the order and trying to figure out where they will end up tonight
My sister, wisely, did not wait for the evac order; she didn’t want to find herself in a situation where at 11pm she was trying to find a hotel, etc.
She said the roads were crowded when she did leave; it’s gotta be awful now.
Her BFF lives about a mile west and got the mandatory evac at about 230pm, IIRC.
Whoops; my sister said “hotel” not “hospital”.
ETA: The AP just updated their article:
I was really hoping that was a mistake. I’d heard a hospital evacuated all of its patients, but last I read, the staff were sheltering in place – not sure if it got too dangerous to evacuate, or if they stayed to help people, but I was really hoping it hadn’t burned.
I’m told that Westminster(SE of Broomfield) just got the evac order.
Here’s a link to the current evacuation zone map.
I have family in one of those towns. This afternoon they evacuated about 4 miles east, and then had to evacuate a second time a few hours later. As they were leaving their neighborhood they said they saw an adjacent neighborhood with many houses on fire, with huge flames. They said they will be surprised if their home is still standing tomorrow.
Sadly, that number is hours old & appears to be from only one town.
One reporter made a comment about where all of the displaced people will go in the days & weeks to come as he thought the rental market would have trouble absorbing that influx all at once.
The rental market here was already saturated. I have no idea where thousands of families are going to be living next week.
Fortunately the evacuation lines haven’t moved in about 3 hours, which is a big change from earlier when they were updating every 15 minutes.
We live in central AZ. A friend and her three children and small dog might end up staying in our spare room until they get things sorted out because there is nothing available closer. We will make this work if we have to, but it certainly isn’t optimal for anyone.
Over 34,000 people were forced to evacuate.
On the emergency management site, there’s a list of road closures due to the fire, which is to be expected.
There’s an additional intersection closure that they noted was not due to the fire, but due to the traffic lights becoming unstable in the wind. Yikes.
Shouldn’t the army be there setting up temporary accommodation? They have the manpower and the equipment.