The Remains Of The Day

 First of all, I want to thank everyone who took time to call me, send me e-mail, and post to my Facebook page.  This out pouring of love and concern from you all really has meant the world to me especially since R has been out of town working, and I just wanted to say thank you.

Also I want to assure you that at no point so far (knocking on wood here) have I personally been in any danger from the fire itself. 

I think if you have a TV and turned it on, regardless where you are in the world you have probably seen some type of coverage of our fire.  People have told me from France, England, Australia and even India that they have seen it on their news.  The one comment that people keep making is how widespread it is.

Yes it is, however I want to take just a moment and put that into perspective for those of you who are not familiar with Colorado Springs.  I am sure you have seen that 32,000 people have been evacuated so far.  That does seem like a lot, and it is.  But we have roughly half a million people living combined in the city and the smaller outlying areas.

Also as of this morning over 18,000 acres have burned, but the majority of that is unpopulated forest.  Only a very small section of town was burned.  Which does not in any way minimize the loss we experienced, but it was all north west of interstate 25, and the vast majority of the city is east and south of that part.  So don't think that the entire city is on fire, it's certainly not.

I won't lie to you though, things took a very real and intense turn Tuesday afternoon.  We were all very nervous and scared.  We had winds of 65 mph blowing east which brought the fire back over the crest of the mountain and straight down into residential areas.  It happened in roughly 45 minutes according to the estimates I have heard.  I believe it too, because the gigantic cloud of smoke was on top of my neighborhood so fast.  We don't have any word yet on how many homes were lost.

 What we do know is that no one was hurt, no one is missing, and the evacuations have been amazingly orderly and well executed.  Also the Red Cross, Care and Share and a whole variety of other agencies have stepped up to help us and be prepared.  The animal shelter is taking pets in so that people don't need to worry that they are being cared for while they are evacuated.  There are also places for larger animals to be cared for while their owners are displaced.  People are getting on the average of about 8 hours pre-evacuation notice, so people are having time to grab a few things that can't be replaced, important papers, photos and essentials.

As of right now, we have over 1000 fire fighters on the ground, planes and helicopters in the air and a convoy of military bulldozers arrived last evening to dig trenches.  While that sounds like a lot, it's really not.  Plus many of the fire fighters came here after battling the enormous fire two hours north of us for a couple of weeks.  They are dehydrated, exhausted and dealing with extreme, record setting temperatures on top of the fire.  Despite all that they are doing a phenomenal job.

President Obama is coming  Friday to declare us a federal disaster area.  We have already been declared a disaster area, but being declared a federal one will bring us more aid, which we desperately need.  They are estimating it will take until July 16th to get the fire contained, and how long after that it will burn is anyone's guess.  It's currently at 5% containment. 

People in the city are really doing their part to help, there are tons of shelters set up in schools.  Businesses have turned offices into bedrooms...it's truly amazing at how everyone has stepped up.  There is literally no room at the inn either, hotels both here and in Denver are practically full to overflowing.  So hopefully that helps you a little bit with putting it all into perspective.

As for me, Tuesday really was pretty rough.  The smoke cloud, which I heard an estimation was billowing 30,000 feet into the air set directly down on top of my neighborhood almost 20 miles away from the fire thanks to the wind.  At about 4-5 PM it was so thick it looked like night.  I had an asthma attack, which I have not had one in over 5 years.  I had to go to the urgent care and have a breathing treatment, and they gave me a script for an inhaler.

I could see the flames of the other side of town burning after the cloud dissipated.  At that point it was moving so fast, and we really didn't know if the fire was coming our way or not.  Luckily it didn't cross the freeway.  I was home alone, R has been working in Utah.  Normally I am good in a crisis situation, but this was pretty tense for me. They had the freeway closed for a while, and I was nervous R wouldn't be able to get home today.  But luck was on our side and the freeway was open and pretty clear, so he made it home safe and sound.

Yesterday morning I had settled down and was about to go to bed when I saw something laying on my porch.  I picked it up and that's the photo you are seeing above.  Of course after I picked it up and photographed it they said on the news a half hour later if you find any of this stuff to not touch it because it could be asbestos or some other toxic thing, but I threw it away and washed my hands right after so I am sure I am ok.  It still scared me to think something could reach all the way to where I was and made me think about blowing hot embers, which is such a danger.

So until they get the fire contained I will be praying for no wind and lots of heavy rain which we desperately need, and that it does not turn and make it's way back into town.

Summer Fun And Fear

Today started off pretty good.  R and I got up and headed up to Larkspur Colorado, which is a very tiny town about 30 miles north of our house.  We were going to the Renaissance Festival.  We like to do that every summer.  It's always a nice day outside and a good excuse to eat steak on a stake and drink a little beer.

We have been having a heat wave though.  It topped out at 100 degrees today which is just unheard of for Colorado.  We stayed at the festival for about 4 hours and then the heat started taking it's toll on me.  I kept getting dizzy and R was yelling at me to stay in the shade.  Although there wasn't much in the way of shade to stay in.  I am never very good in extreme heat, but I am also sick so it was a bit worse today.

I picked up a few little trinkets, which I was going to show you pics of.  But when he headed towards home we could see a huge column of smoke rising up from the south west.  The closer we got to home, the more we realized that the smoke was pretty close to Colorado Springs.

When we got home we turned on the TV.  A fire had broken out in Waldo Canyon.  Now if you have been following the news, you know that we have already had our fair share of fires in Colorado this year.  This was coming on the heels of our flooding I posted about a couple weeks ago.  We are having a rough time this year.

They were already evacuating parts of the west side of town, including our old neighborhood!  By 8 PM they were saying 2000 acres were on fire, but they were confident that Manitou Springs wouldn't have to evacuate. 

About an hour ago they evacuated the entire town of Manitou.  The fire crested the ridge and started down this side.   The above pic is not a pic I took.  I hate borrowing other people's pics, but this is the most recent photo I could find so I snagged it.  (My apologies to the photographer since I can't credit you!  I don't know who took it.)

We are on the far east side of town, so we are in no immediate danger.  However they have recommended that we all pack a bag just in case.  Although honestly I have no idea where I would go with my pets.  I don't think it will come to that, but you never know I guess.  We have had high winds off and on and it could potentially blow our way.  It's still about 25-30 miles from me.  So I am not overly concerned.  But I did go outside a little while ago and the smoke was so thick I couldn't see the end of my driveway clearly.  It's since dissipated, and things are clear again for now.  

I have a throbbing headache.  In fact it's so bad I couldn't sleep.  The price of allergies I guess.  At this point the fire is 0% contained, and I am hoping and praying that they get it under control really soon.  It's very scary even though it's a ways away from me.  I feel terrible for the several thousands of people already evacuated.  It's just a little too close for comfort.

I will update you when I can.