Keep Boulder in your thoughts

[edwin]

The hills just west of Boulder are in flames. So far more than 7,000 acres have burned and at least 93 structures have been lost. It's 0% contained and the whole front range is covered in smoke. It blew up yesterday and was out of control extremely quickly with wind gusts up in the mountains of up to 65mph. Today it was calmer, but the fire still doubled. I'm sure the structure damage will be much higher, as it's a pretty densely populated area. We're praying for rain (hopefully without lightning) from a weather front that's moving by. I know other parts of the country have been through this, it's scary and tragic. At this point, it's heading to the city limits and hopefully they'll be able to contain it before it strikes the actual city.

[hammer]

Having recently visited your beautiful part of the country, my thoughts and prayers, and I suspect those of everyone who frequents the club, are with you and those who live in the area.  Stay safe.

[artswork99]

A prayer for rain and safety for all.

[smokinbear]

Saw The smoke from Conifer Monday and thought at first it was a storm front, but as i drove to Denver it was painfully obvious the cloud was a fire. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the people and animals in harms way. My friend from STS9 was playing golf at the Boulder Country Club and had to stop playing because embers and ash were raining down.  :-(  Was just up in the area for Nedfest the other week. Be Safe all!!!!  I lived through a couple of years of fires in very northern Cali so i know the smoke does weird things to your mental state. Hopefully we can muster the same kinda effort CDF puts together to fight fires here.      Bear

[David Houck]

The homes already lost weigh on the heart.  Hoping for the best outcome possible; hoping for rain.

[lbpesq]

Positive vibes emanating from California.  I'll make sure to punch up Looks Like Rain on my mp3 today on the flight to Portland. (Heading up for the NORML National Conference).
 
Bill, tgo

[sonicus]

Same here, hoping for the best possible outcome.
 
    Prayers for all the people , animals , homes & prized possessions

[edwin]

Well, still at 0% containment, slurry planes grounded because of an inversion layer and smoke levels making it unhealthy to be outside. However, there's a good chance of rain today! Luckily, the wind is low today. Breaking news: No growth of the fire last night! Acreage is down by almost 1000!
 
However, tomorrow is supposed to be near 90 with high winds again. Hopefully I won't have to spend tomorrow evacuating my wife's business, which is right by the next layer of evacuation. In the last couple of years, we've evacuated her twice, but both times the fires were stopped.
 
If people are on facebook, there's a great set of photos taken by my friend, Eric Abramson, firefighter and filmmaker, at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=82176&id=1040436158 and some of them are here: http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter/2010/09/firefighter-photos-near-gold-hill/#name%20here
(On a musical note, he's been involved in some great documentaries, including one on Leftover Salmon as well as being a videographer for the documentary, the Cove).
 
David Glasser, Grammy winning mastering engineer, of Airshow Mastering, is also a volunteer firefighter up on the front lines among the rest of the heroic firefighters. Being outside of the city of Boulder, it's all volunteer up there, although something like 30 other departments have showed up to help out.
 
thanks for all the good thoughts, I know everyone out here appreciates it!

[David Houck]

Latest news.

[pace]

All the best to you and your neighbors, Edwin.... Not to sound like a wise-ass, but I thought the snow was just starting to melt up there (a guy here in town just got back from hiking the continental divide from New Mexico to Canada)...

[edwin]

It's not good. Right now the winds have kicked up, probably close to 50mph in the gusts down in town. I can't imagine what it's like for the firefighters up in the hills. We ran into a few of them at the gas station (who had come all the way from Montrose, 7 hours away on the other side of the state) and they looked pretty frazzled (and sooty!).  
 
We just did a preliminary evacuation of Dawn's studio, as it's in the warning area. Given that it's in the city limits, things are getting scary. I think her studio is pretty safe, but that zone extends all the way downtown and through some of the nicest neighborhoods in Boulder.
 
Anyway, thanks for the thoughts and prayers, we need them!

[afrobeat_fool]

I'm sending good thoughts for you and all the others caught up in the fire zone. Take care bro.

[David Houck]

I just ran a search and found that as of late yesterday the Boulder fire was 100% contained.

[edwin]

Yup, it's just a question of mopping up. Luckily there are no big winds in the forecast. While the Fourmile fire was being contained on Sunday, another broke out about 20 miles north of here that burned 2 houses. It turns out both were set by people, the Fourmile fire by a 20 year vet of the volunteer FD who let a firepit smolder and get out of control. His house burned.
 
Anyway, the evacuees are being let back to their homes and those who lost them are at least finding out where they stand. Their odyssey is just beginning. I know of at least a few musicians who lost their instruments.
 
Edwin

[David Houck]

Thanks for the update Edwin.