Colorado fires

We just finished building a home and haven't even moved there yet and those fire are about 20 miles away. Please keep your fingers crossed for rain, rain, rain! Thanks.

Oh Deanne! I just saw that on TV and I am wrorried, for you and for all those poor folks. Are there any other DG members close to this horrible fire? If so, I hope mother nature comes through for you.
And in Minnesota, I understand it is flooding! Brother! I just hope everyone makes it thorugh this bad spell intact.

Currently I'm in Ohio packed and waiting for the mover to pick up tomorrow and it's raining with flood warning...I guess I should have stated rain in Colorado!

i have a good friend in cory that im worried about. i'll pray for you also deanne.

Praying for rain there, Deanne. My aunt and uncle live in Durango, and the fires are up around Missionary Ridge just north of there. I've started looking at the Durango newspaper site online to see what's happening there. :(

Deanne, I'll keep praying for rain in Colorado. That is the only thing that will help that situation end quickly. How heartwrenching to have a new home in peril. I am so sorry.

<< Are there any other DG members close to this horrible fire? >>

Yes. I posted the following this morning in the General Discussion folder.

<< A radio update about an hour ago put the largest fire burning in the state in terms that people can understand. The Hayman Fire southwest of Denver has burned 90,000 acres so far. That translates to 20 miles long and 14 miles wide. Containment, not *control*, isn't expected for 70-90 days. >>

Deanne: Where is your new house located? Here's a link that has good info about all the wildfires in this state. It has maps that show the relative proximity of cities, towns, reservoirs, etc. to the major fire.

http://www.9news.com/newsroom/wf2002-stats.htm

Part of our area is Sedalia and part is Castle Rock. As we hear, they have asked for voluntary evacuation from Sedalia, about 6 miles away :o(

Deanne, praying for rain in Colorado. I hope they can contain the fires before they reach your area.

Seems like the more residental areas would be safer than the houses that are in the wooded areas. At least if your house is in an area with many other houses, they can cut down all the trees so the fire won't have anything to burn near your house. I guess there's always a chance of embers drifting in the air a few hundred feet that could start a fire. In any case, good luck.
That's the tallest garage door I've ever seen on a house!

Deanne, count on my prayers for rain in Colorado too. Add to that for NM and AZ. I have friends/relatives in all of the western states, and I know how bad the wildfires can get.

Lord, please send some of our rain (I am in Ohio too) to the western states. Not only for we gardeners, but for the farmers who are really suffering.

<< At least if your house is in an area with many other houses, they can cut down all the trees so the fire won't have anything to burn near your house. >>

Wildfire, when it's as big as Hayman, takes on a life of its own. Thursday the heat was so intense that water dumped by helicopters *evaporated* before it reached the fire. I've seen helicopters dip buckets of water from a river to fight a small fire, so I figured, "Sure, that small bucket
of water could evaporate." Then I watched tonight's TV news. The buckets used on the Hayman Fire hold 2,000 gallons of water.

Today was good from the fire-fight standpoint. Nearly 1,800 firefighters are on the scene with more on their way, and the temps are cooler. The Castle Rock area even had a bit of rain.

Colorado is classified as semi-arid. Annual precip where I live is 15.3 inches -- that's water content in snow, rain, and whatever else wet chooses to fall. So when we're in a drought and at 40 percent to 50 percent of "normal," we're talking six, seven, eight inches of moisture a year. This year is called severe drought, following three years of just plain drought, so growies are dried out big time.

Good luck to all of you in the vicinity.
I can't even start to imagine what it would be like if anything like that should happen here, since we get so much rain anyway.
I hope all of you are, and will be, safe from this calamity.

Good luck all

Wintermoor

Good luck to you people who are in harms way of the fire. My daughters finace is headed there to fight the fires in a couple of days. He is so dedicated to the cause that he just keeps volunteering every time there is an emergency situation like the one you are experiencing. These guys are really unsung heros as they take their own lives in their hands to go and try to bring this type of devastation under control.

Good news of the fire this morning. Our prayers are being answered with the lowered winds and temps: helping the firemen to get it under control faster than expected!
Praise the Lord and keep it up!

Kathy

Is this the same fire I read about in the paper yesterday, that was started when a woman burned a letter from her estranged husband or fiance?

<< Is this the same fire I read about in the paper yesterday, that was started when a woman burned a letter from her estranged husband or fiance? >>

The huge Hayman Fire southwest of Denver is the one caused by the Forest Service employee, yes. My guess is there's more to that story than the public knows yet. Denver TV converage of that arrest has included hints that the fire may not have been accidental, i.e., "Nobody knows if she started the fire to burn the letter or burned the letter to start the fire." The Associated Press must suspect or know something because an AP story in this morning's newspaper said that U.S. Attorney John Suthers refused to say why Barton was accused of deliberately setting the wildfire but had not been charged with arson.

Just got back to Ohio! It rained 3 days and when we left the fire was almost 70% contained. Thanks for all your prayers. Yes those are big garage doors, it's for an RV and is 14 ft tall. We enjoyed the little hummers and the deer, not the snakes but the rabbit were all cute.