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Colorado Fires

LazyWP

Well-known member
I was on another site and they said the town of Last Chance got pretty much burned to the ground last night. Anyone have any more information?
 

jeff in ca

Well-known member
I feel for the families and victims of these devastating fires. Seems like the Forest Circus and Eco-Freaks celebrate such events..
 

Larrry

Well-known member
This is what I found. There isn't much at Last Chance, a few houses, I think a store and a Fire Station, and a stop sign. That doesn't say that the fire wasn't devastating. The size of it has to say that there was some big ranches burn


http://www.koaa.com/news/new-eastern-plains-wildfire-blazing-in-colorado/
DENVER (AP) - A grass fire on Colorado's eastern plains that grew from a few acres to 60 square miles in less than a day is the latest blaze to keep firefighters hopping.

Evacuation orders were given for the towns of Last Chance, Woodrow and surrounding areas after the fire broke out on Monday. At least four homes were destroyed in the fire. Seven other structures were burned.
 

Shortgrass

Well-known member
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fon.kdvr.com%2Foyla8a&h=AAQG-qTsUAQG_tMXEg7cp0-n0ZE-eX8TrfW6JE05peQM_Ug

One neighbor reports all Last Chance burned, another says her friends house was saved there. I did hear 9 structures and a fire truck burned. Some of those structures were houses. We don't hear much on Last Chance fire because of the Waldo Canyon fire threatening homes in Co Springs, Cascade, Green Mt Falls, and Manitou. Its a serious situation in Colorado.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
Our meterologist on the radio this morning was likening this summer to
1988~the year Yellowstone Park burned.

So sorry for all the folks the fires have affected. Wish there was
something we could do.
 

BRG

Well-known member
This sure is tough to take, prayers and hope, along with alot of help. Maybe the rain will come real soon.
 

eatbeef

Well-known member
These fires are horrible and feel for the ones affected. I have been through Poudre Canyon west of Ft. Collins cant imagine how they would control these fires. Let alone to think of the cattle on forest permits.

I hate to point a finger here but this has been coming, some 15 years ago we went on a family vacation and you could see this coming then. When lightning stikes and starts a fire, somebody up above is managing these lands, but now there are cabins and houses where they never should have been and its turning into a natural disaster. If these forest had been managed propely, controlled burns would have been in the management plan. If your not going to let mother nature take care of itself with fire then logging and grazing better be in the management plans. It is the same way here in Kansas all the state parks are overgrown with cedars if a fire was to start on a dry year it would go up in no time. I dont understand why more controlled burns are not used, I have been many places that were burnt and yes after the burn it looks bad, but go back 6 months, 1 year, 2 or 3 years later and see the flourishing lush grasses, abundant wildlife and control of invasive trees.
 

Shortgrass

Well-known member
eatbeef said:
These fires are horrible and feel for the ones affected. I have been through Poudre Canyon west of Ft. Collins cant imagine how they would control these fires. Let alone to think of the cattle on forest permits.

I hate to point a finger here but this has been coming, some 15 years ago we went on a family vacation and you could see this coming then. When lightning stikes and starts a fire, somebody up above is managing these lands, but now there are cabins and houses where they never should have been and its turning into a natural disaster. If these forest had been managed propely, controlled burns would have been in the management plan. If your not going to let mother nature take care of itself with fire then logging and grazing better be in the management plans. It is the same way here in Kansas all the state parks are overgrown with cedars if a fire was to start on a dry year it would go up in no time. I dont understand why more controlled burns are not used, I have been many places that were burnt and yes after the burn it looks bad, but go back 6 months, 1 year, 2 or 3 years later and see the flourishing lush grasses, abundant wildlife and control of invasive trees.

Spot on. We need some lumberjacks guarding the forest guardians!
 

tenbach79

Well-known member
Some buildings did burn down in Last Chance (There is only 8 house in the town) and some were saved. It burned 46,000 acres with most of the loss of buildings being out in the country. We live anout 45 miles from it dad drove over today and took a look. Have some friends that we winter cattle for a few years back for to see if it got there place.

On county sheriff told dad that the fire was buring aroung 6mph through the grass. When its moving like that its hard to get it stopped. Had around 10 farmers with disks making fire lines. Strated thinking to day to go find a disk some where for cheap to keep around here for just that purpose.
 

LazyWP

Well-known member
I worked for some farmers out by Bennet, all the way east towards north of Last Chance, back in the mid 80's and early 90's. Last Chance kinda shriveled up, when the store/gas station burned back then. I guess I don't know which side of 36 the fire is on, but either side can get pretty rough. If they let guys like Kalcevic's and the other big farmers plow up fire breaks it would help. I know in this country, they get all upset if you try rolling a firebreak up with a grader. They would rather see it burn, I guess.
 

tenbach79

Well-known member
When you farm as big as Kalcevic you would want your fields to burn to get rid of the weeds. Alot of wheat fields and summer follow and pasture land in and around this area. The fire started 5 miles south of last chance along Highway 71. They said a guy pulling a trailer blew a tire and keeped driving with the rim on the ground making sparks.

My wife is on here way to Denver and said there is a fire now north of Flagler Colorado(which is along I-70 about 140 miles east of Denver or 50 miles from Kansas line) 20 miles west of me. Scary time of year there is still some guys cutting wheat and if you get a bearing hot and catches a stubble field started its going to go quick.

Its been 100+ degrees for the last 5 days along with 20-25mph winds here. With no relief in site. I know we need rain but along with it comes lighting, but how dry we are not sure if any storm that comes along will have enough moisture just a dry thunder storm.
 

Larrry

Well-known member
The fire would have had to traveled north of Last Chance if it was threatening Woodrow. Unless my recollection is wrong.

The problem is I have seen the Federal and State guys try to do a controlled burn, they can't control anything. They cause more trouble than they solve.
 

bverellen

Well-known member
Sure wish we could send this Tropical Storm Debbie to you folks. Been raining here for almost two weeks now.

We will keep you in our prayers.

Bart.
 

gcreekrch

Well-known member
bverellen said:
Sure wish we could send this Tropical Storm Debbie to you folks. Been raining here for almost two weeks now.

We will keep you in our prayers.

Bart.

Saw some footage of that on the news tonight. Are you wading or boating where you are?

Fires and floods, nature's way of showing us how insignificant we really are. Hope all of you folks stay safe.
 

leanin' H

Well-known member
A fire east of us about 80 miles has burnt 39000 acres and killed one person. It has destroyed 35 homes/cabins and is bearing down on 2 communities tonight.
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=21002481&nid=148&title=one-dead-in-wood-hollow-fire-fairview-evacuated&s_cid=featured-1

Hope there weather moderates for everyone pretty soon before half of us burn up or blow away and the other half floats away! :?
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
leanin' H said:
A fire east of us about 80 miles has burnt 39000 acres and killed one person. It has destroyed 35 homes/cabins and is bearing down on 2 communities tonight.
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=21002481&nid=148&title=one-dead-in-wood-hollow-fire-fairview-evacuated&s_cid=featured-1

Hope there weather moderates for everyone pretty soon before half of us burn up or blow away and the other half floats away! :?

Certainly seems like nature has something bad going on everywhere.
We are 100 degrees at 8 pm. It got to 108 today with 9% humidity.
We had three days of hard wind, hard enough to do damage.

I had a friend tell me several years back, that when super powers
mess with Israel, nature causes bad weather somewhere. Since then
I've noticed that it's true.
 

tenbach79

Well-known member
Now homes on the west side of Colorado springs are burning. Fire started about 25-30 miles west of some of these homes. They said that there is $256 million dollar worth of homes in this area.
 

WyomingRancher

Well-known member
tenbach79 said:
Now homes on the west side of Colorado springs are burning. Fire started about 25-30 miles west of some of these homes. They said that there is $256 million dollar worth of homes in this area.

They've evacuated 32,000 people tonight in the Colorado Springs area. 2400 people are ready to be evacuated from the Boulder fire. My good friend lives outside of Boulder, and we were chatting on the phone today about how I hoped these thunderstorms would just dissipate since they had so much lightning with them. No sooner did we hang up when lightning started the Boulder fire. Gonna be a long night, long summer, long fall, just horrific...
 
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