Marshall Fire in Superior CO

[BushMasterBoy]

The devastation is unreal. Not sure what I would do if my house disappeared like this.

[HoneyBadger]

Wow, that's painful to watch. Wishing the best for everyone affected by this.

[Hummer]

After 39 hours without electricity the power in our mountain homes was restored this evening. With all that's happened we feel fortunate.

[theGinsue]

What I find absolutely unbelievable is with all of this destruction and with how quickly this fire spread that there is still no reported loss of human life. Of course, we can expect that there were likely homes destroyed with pets inside where the owners couldn't get back to get them and this is very regrettable, but this many homes GONE and no one died? Amazing.

Throughout the day I've seen multiple comparisons between this fire and the Hayman, Waldo Canyon and Black Forest Fires. The one thing you don't hear in those comparisons is those other fires took days to wreak their carnage but the Marshall Fire took less than a day to wipe out so many homes and businesses - destroying lifetimes of collected memories and cherished possessions. Truly devastating.

What's sad is that there should be many lessons learned from this to try to avoid having it happen again but I doubt anything of value learned from this will result in better methods for building and mitigation going forward.

[funkymonkey1111]

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.
.

After getting popped for $39M for shit poles, they'd better be making that effort

https://www.denverpost.com/2007/05/2...ts-39-million/

[buffalobo]

Excel was not held liable in that case, Qwest was. It was a Qwest pole installed in 1958 by Ma Bell predecessor.

[Ramsker]

Interesting . . .

https://kdvr.com/news/local/could-th...marshall-fire/

"New video obtained by FOX31 may show another potential source of the fire: a burning shed along Highway 93. The video was taken before noon at the intersection of Highway 93 and 170, the initial area fire investigators are focusing on for the ignition of the Marshall Fire."

[BushMasterBoy]

I'm just wondering if asphalt shingle roofs are a major contributor to the houses that burnt down? I have been thinking of having my shingle roof replaced with sheet metal roofing. Almost every year I have minor shingle damage from high winds. This year the area looks like a tinderbox.

[eddiememphis]

...the Marshall Fire took less than a day to wipe out so many homes ... I doubt anything of value learned from this will result in better methods for building and mitigation going forward.

Engineered lumber burns hotter and faster than dimensional lumber. That may explain how the buildings were so completely burned.

Obviously, the wind was the biggest component, but if fireproofing standards were followed for traditional lumber and not updated for the newer stuff, it could be a factor as well.

[00tec]

Engineered lumber burns hotter and faster than dimensional lumber. That may explain how the buildings were so completely burned.

Obviously, the wind was the biggest component, but if fireproofing standards were followed for traditional lumber and not updated for the newer stuff, it could be a factor as well.

Vinyl siding doesn't help.