Marshall Fire in Superior CO

[Ramsker]

I have not really watched much local news the last 5 or 6 years. Local news has been leaning left for years but once Trump became politically popular they basically became local CNN affiliates. At any rate, like many in the area I watched the local channels yesterday, 4, 7, 9, 31, to try and get info and holy smokes I didn't expect to get a dose of liberalism thrown at me during an emergency situation. Lots of subtle digs at conservative ideas, blaming global warming, and clearly republicans are to blame for all this.

Weatherman Mike Nelson made sure and directly blame Global Warming and fossil fuels for this thing, while Karen's favorite soy boy Kyle Clark claims that thankfully we now have sane politicians in charge and we should rest assured that they will lead the recovery efforts.

It used to be that real news was exempt from the spin, at least in emergency situations while they were happening... Guess those days are loooong gone!

I had to turn Nelson off when he started with that garbage. Like it's never been dry and incredibly windy in CO until now.

Hope all who are in the area or have family in the area are safe. Can't imagine going through that.

[hollohas]

Driest 2nd half of the year on record by far.

[Delfuego]

Friends house today, picture of the front porch

Attachment 88983

Picture from the front porch

Attachment 88984

[Ramsker]

Damn . . . that's pretty sobering. Tornadoes and fires are just crazy with how very little distance there can be between total destruction and not a scratch.

[Delfuego]

Agreed. Truly crazy.
Know some others staying with family and still waiting to find out what happened what happened to their home.

[00tec]

Bingo!

I took one of those Environmental Sciences classes up at CU years ago, it was one of those classes full of Green Peace hippy types and we went around campus studying the different types of vegetation and then compared that with photos from the 1870s. Boulder didn't have any trees back then. For the most part everything you see up there today has all been planted by humans. Back in the 1800s, fires every few decades kept that area naturally clear. The more development and people living here, the more fuel is created making that inevitable fire much bigger than what would naturally occur. The big take away was at some point in the future there will be a huge fire, bigger than anything that would naturally occur, and it will rage from Boulder down to Denver and there is nothing we can do to stop it. Well here we are, if not for the wind stopping and the snow coming this thing would still be raging.

Knowing we we knew from that class, you would think they would not approve building houses 10 feet apart and so many non natural trees. All those trees may as well have been huge matchsticks. Another thing I noticed was the wooden privacy fences that every HOA requires acted as a huge source of fuel. Cities and developers love cramming houses in as many as possible so they can get more taxes. I see this now in Castle Rock, no one is building neighborhoods with acreage, its all homes 10 feet apart. Same thing will happen down here some day.

About 5 years ago, I believe I helped someone's home from burning. A grass fire started a little NE of DIA because of some asshole playing with tannerite and gasoline. The FD was parked on a hill, watching. Their log pole fence was engulfed. I hiked 2x 5 gallon buckets at a time frim next door (about 200 yards) to help put it out. Their newly planted trees were all on fire. Not sure how much water I carried that day, but my shoes were melted. It took several trips just to put down the hot spots in the tree mulch down.

Still don't know who they are. They were my buddy's ex-wife's neighbors that were out of town. Some of their siding melted, but the house and doggos were fine.

[Hummer]

For those who watched the press conference this morning you might have caught the question about the cause of the fire. The Sheriff's reply alluded to the ongoing investigation looking at all possible causes beyond downed power lines. His demeanor suggested to me that it could well be that an arsonist caused the billion dollar fire.

The power has been out on our NW Boulder county mountain homes for more than 12 hours. No doubt we're low priority on the repair list. I'm away from home but have family and a friend setting up auxiliary heat to keep the water systems from freezing. It could get to minus 4 degrees and drop a foot of snow there tonight.

[wctriumph]

I have been watching the various news channels all night and this morning, really devastating what is being shown.
Prayers for those affected and for the men and women that fought to bring this catastrophe to the end.

[.455_Hunter]

For those who watched the press conference this morning you might have caught the question about the cause of the fire. The Sheriff's reply alluded to the ongoing investigation looking at all possible causes beyond downed power lines. His demeanor suggested to me that it could well be that an arsonist caused the billion dollar fire.

The power has been out on our NW Boulder county mountain homes for more than 12 hours. No doubt we're low priority on the repair list. I'm away from home but have family and a friend setting up auxiliary heat to keep the water systems from freezing. It could get to minus 4 degrees and drop a foot of snow there tonight.

I saw the plume out of our kitchen window when it first started. Though we are miles away, it looked to be exactly at the Marshall Rd. / Hwy 93 interchange, a location that has experienced issues with power lines arcing/failing before. But yes, a burning wad of paper towels could have just as easily been the source.

Please stay safe up there!

[Hummer]

I saw the plume out of our kitchen window when it first started. Though we are miles away, it looked to be exactly at the Marshall Rd. / Hwy 93 interchange, a location that has experienced issues with power lines arcing/failing before. But yes, a burning wad of paper towels could have just as easily been the source.

Please stay safe up there!

I'd guess you have an expansive view, one deserving of a good spotting scope. One factor that won't be mentioned is that the open space properties that finger throughout the county provide pathways for fire just as happened from Marshall Creek all the way into the Rock Creek subdivision that burned in Superior. I doubt that fire mitigation is a part of any open space planning on the plains. Of course, minimal fire barrier spaces won't stop wind driven fire.

To their credit Xcel Energy has made a major effort over the past two years to replace power poles in the mountain areas around us. And they're using much larger heavier poles now.

Yesterday, some friends drove south on 36 north of Boulder and noticed the Middle Fork fire near the Lefthand Canyon Road was not just one but three separate fires. Seems suspicious to me that these fires all started next to the highways north and south of Boulder.