Probably very few people outside of Colorado remember the Hayman fire. This week is the tenth anniversary of it. It remains the biggest fire in Colorado history–138,000 acres. (A little over 215 square miles.) I know that some states have had much bigger fires, but Colorado had never seen anything like that before. It had a huge impact on our collective psyche. There was a real fear for a while that it could seriously threaten major population centers. It was just growing and growing and growing–very quickly. The Forest Service at the time was just beginning to realize how majorly misguided their efforts had been to put out every single fire, regardless of where it was or what it was burning.
In the last 10 years, the relevant government agencies and people in general have made great strides in educating people and setting up defensive zones around houses and other property. There is still much work to be done–several decades of mismanagement and ignorance cannot be quickly erased.
It will be at least 75 years before the Hayman burn area begins to look like it did. This is partly because the fire burned so hot that it destroyed the normal seeding and regeneration mechanisms that a natural fire sets in motion.
Here are links to some articles published in the Colorado Springs Gazette.
I remember flying in from Texas and at cruising altitude having the entire plane suddenly smelling like smoke. People were starting to freak out until the pilot got on the intercom and explaining that it was from the Hayman fire.
It looks like this is Larimer County’s year, with two big ones already and another breaking out today.
We were camping just over the ridge from where it started and left the campground as we noticed smoke over the ridge. By the time we got back down to Denver, there was so much smoke in the air the sky was completely orange at sunset. Our house smelled like smoke for a couple of days afterwards.
The Denver Post did a big spreadabout the fire and the person who started it, Terry Barton, and her claims that the fire was started accidentally as she burned a letter from her ex-husband. Investigators found no trace of paper in the fire ring she used, and the rocks from the ring were moved in such a way that the fire would escape.
There is a wolf sanctuary in the area of the current fire, and they were able to find a place for 11 of the wolves, but 19 were left behind. They have underground concrete “fire dens” in which they can survive the fire, but if you look at the enclosure the gates are made from wooden fence posts.
So in a few days we’re going to have a large pack of hungry wolves coming out of their dens, running free in the foothills populated by firefighters, all just a few miles west of Ft. Collins. Nice.
I’ve been hearing from various places that weather and moisture conditions this year are similar to 2002. And late last night I was listening to KOA, and they said that conditions this year, at least up by the High Park fire, are 3 weeks in advance of where they were in 2002.
The snowpack is virtually gone already, with several places reporting no measurable snow.
And it’s local folklore that we’re overdue for a major fire on Pikes Peak. Meanwhile, I just sit here, wondering. . . .
According to the Gazette, Colorado Springs has about 30,000 houses in the urban-wildland interface zone.
We were camping just over the ridge as well, on Jackson Creek Road. The only thing I can compare the smoke to that morning was after Mt. Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines. Thick, acidic, and coating everything.
We are going up again this weekend, to the same spot. Should be fun!