Waldo Canyon Day 2
It's really day five since the fire first plumed in the center of the Waldo Canyon Trail, but day two of what is being called a siege on the city. First, Nick and I are on the south west side of the city and doing fine at this point. We do know plenty of people who live in the evacuated area and one of my friends is worried that he may have lost everything (but he did get his bike...)
I was in Pueblo yesterday, following the news briefing on Twitter. Then it changed - went from a standard briefing to mandatory evacuations for a large portion of the city. Tweets became direct and frantic at times. Driving back up 25 to town, the smoke plume towered into the sky, the closer I got, the darker it became as the smoke filled the air. When I got home and turned the news on, it became clear. The fire, whipped into a frenzy by raging winds, had jumped over two fire lines. Into Queens Canyon, directly behind the Mountain Shadows area. With winds howling up to 65 mph, the fire had the upper hand and quickly descended into the western limits of the city. A gut wrenching site on TV - watching flames eating away at homes I've ridden my bike past many times.
So far, the fire crews have held it to west of Centennial. Homes have been lost and people are on edge, for sure. But everyone is saying its gonna be another hard day with more wind and continued high temperatures. It's a hard, hot job - wildland and urban interface fire fighting and a long struggle ahead to gain control.
I was in Pueblo yesterday, following the news briefing on Twitter. Then it changed - went from a standard briefing to mandatory evacuations for a large portion of the city. Tweets became direct and frantic at times. Driving back up 25 to town, the smoke plume towered into the sky, the closer I got, the darker it became as the smoke filled the air. When I got home and turned the news on, it became clear. The fire, whipped into a frenzy by raging winds, had jumped over two fire lines. Into Queens Canyon, directly behind the Mountain Shadows area. With winds howling up to 65 mph, the fire had the upper hand and quickly descended into the western limits of the city. A gut wrenching site on TV - watching flames eating away at homes I've ridden my bike past many times.
So far, the fire crews have held it to west of Centennial. Homes have been lost and people are on edge, for sure. But everyone is saying its gonna be another hard day with more wind and continued high temperatures. It's a hard, hot job - wildland and urban interface fire fighting and a long struggle ahead to gain control.
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| Photo of the fire storming into the Mountain Shadows area - I stole the photo off Facebook, so don't really know who took it |
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