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Subscribe to RSSColoradans are battling one of the first wildfires of the season. NBC's Lester Holt reports.
Evacuation orders were lifted on Saturday for hundreds of Colorado residents forced to flee their homes due to a wind-driven wildfire in a canyon northwest of Denver, as firefighters made progress in containing the blaze, officials said.
Calmer winds, higher humidity levels and cooler temperatures allowed firefighters to cut containment lines around 45 percent of the so-called Galena Fire, said Nick Christensen, spokesman for the Larimer County Sheriff's Office.
The blaze signaled an early start to the wildfire season in the drought-stricken state, which last year had its worst fire year on record.
In 2012, forest and brush fires scorched 384,803 acres in the state, destroyed 650 homes and killed six people, according to the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control.
The latest wildfire erupted on Friday about 75 miles northwest of Denver near the city of Fort Collins and Lory State Park and has charred between 750 and 1,000 acres. But no injuries were reported and no structures were lost, Christensen said.
He added that all evacuees would be permitted to return to their homes by Saturday evening. Hundreds of residents were ordered out of their homes on Friday afternoon after erratic winds quickly spread the flames near populated areas.
Poudre Valley Fire Authority chief Tom DeMint told reporters investigators had pinpointed the origin of the fire and determined that it was human-caused, but he gave no further details.
DeMint said residents allowed back in their homes should be prepared for further evacuations if the high winds forecast for Sunday materialize and cause a flare-up. "If we have another ignition source, it's game on," he said.
Residents of Colorado are once again facing an early start to the wildfire season with the devastating fires of 2012 still fresh in their minds. KUSA's Todd Walker reports.
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Who started the fire? Billy Joel will give you his answer.
What does Billy Joel have to to with this fire. I'am lost on that one.
The song. We didn't start......
I thought every liberal retard in the world knew the answer to that question...GEORGE W BUSH!!!
Sadly, like on most issues, the Modernity-denying followers of the Party of No deny reality itself.
This is a by-product of human-hastened Global Warming..period.
I thought every liberal retard in the world knew the answer to that question...GEORGE W BUSH!!!
Whenever I hear that “stop blaming Bush” line, I chuckle at the very short memory you Republicans have. From 1976 to 1992 you whined and cried, moan and groaned and complained and complained more and bitched, carried on and on and blamed President Carter of everything wrong in the entire universe. Some of you even blamed him for the housing crash in 2007 even though he left office more than a quarter of a century earlier. Then from 1992 to 2008 you whined and cried, moan and groaned and complained and complained more and bitched, carried on and on and blamed President Clinton for everything that was wrong in the entire universe. You blamed Clinton for 9/11, for the housing crisis, even for the massive deficits of the Bush administration. So – using the standard you set – the left has another 29 years to blame Bush for everything just to pull even with you.
actually thats not true, the whole carter nightmare was over and forgoten...the economy was in a complete boom mode
Nature's preening again; get out of the way.
OK, so what does all this drivel have to do with wildfires?
marywhatever:
Billy Joel wrote a song a few decades ago; "We didn't start the fire." A catchy song, actually. "It's been burning since the world's been turning." He mentions very notable names and events throughtout history.
Never stop asking questions wrote: This is a by-product of human-hastened Global Warming..period.
I figured somebody failed to properly maintain a campfire or a cigarette. "global warming", seriously? GCC is so much more PC; don't you think?
Snow rain cold air warm air all a result of global scamming, I learned that watching Al Gores cable network he sold to big oil. You moron freaked out chicken little fools! Reflect heat back to earth? Fine now how much would carbon reflect back to space thus preventing heat from entering the earths atmosphere????? The EXACT SAME AMOUNT. Now invent a new scam to pass along the idiot liberal leaning socialist freak industry.
Too many Doobies being dropped in the woods
Charlie you do realize it was Clinton who did start the housing crisis. Bush just re-signed it because he thought that's what the people wanted since they loved, adored and worshiped Clinton. Also, Clinton's hands are just as dirty as Bush's when it came to 9/11.
Jeff...
@Post 1.11- You don't drop doobies, You smoke them till they are about 1/4 inch long then you put them in your roach container until you have enough to roll a killer roach doobie. Then you smoke that until its about 1/4 inch long then you put that into your second generation roach container. Then you roll a killer 2nd gen. doobie. Then you smoke that until its about 1/4 inch long then you put that into your 3rd generation roach container. Then you roll a killer 3rd gen. doobie. Then you smoke that until its about 1/4 inch long then you put that into your 4th gen. roach container, and so on and so forth. Cigarette smokers are the only ones who toss their nasty lit habits onto the ground starting fires. Pot smokers care to much about their pot to throw it away!
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning since the world's been turning ...
No we didn't light it though we tried to fight it ...
Dang it, Pig, now I'm going to have that stuck in my head all week! I can't believe these people don't get it!
Besides we don't open our windows, especially with 90 mile an hour winds, what a dip.
Lived in CO for nearly 20 years - most of it in Fort Collins.
I never saw wildfires in March. Now we have them 2 years in a row. Where's the March snowpack? At this time of year, people should still be cross-country skiing in Lory.
Snow rain cold air warm air all a result of global scamming, I learned that watching Al Gores cable network he sold to big oil. You moron freaked out chicken little fools! Reflect heat back to earth? Fine now how much would carbon reflect back to space thus preventing heat from entering the earths atmosphere????? The EXACT SAME AMOUNT. Now invent a new scam to pass along the idiot liberal leaning socialist freak industry.
I was born and raised in Ft.Collins and lived there for almost 30 years and I can't recall any time I heard of fires so close to town let alone in March. Of course when I was little there was still snow at Easter.
Tornados are starting earlier too.
@ CaerRaven..... Perhaps it's because the town has gotten much bigger over the past 30 yrs....
Some of you have no sense, simple minded people with a selective memory.. This is not the first time in a March that we had no snow in Colorado. Maybe if the idiots would not build out in the wilds, they would not be as close to the fire..
ITS ANKLE TIME FOLKS....
@Jean -Not selective memory. I lived there as a kid and well to be honest, a child is going to remember weather a LOT differently than an adult would. So please refrain from being insulting when you post. It makes you look infantile and like you're trolling to invite a flame fest, Jean. Thank you.
@Dingdongrb- It'd been something like 10 years since I was last there to visit and it was completely different from what I remember. It has spread out quite a bit from when I lived there around 15 years ago.
Commence the whining and bleating of the climate change deniers!
3
2
1
GO!
At Celtic----------Your to late.
With all that is at risk from this fire, one would think you'd have the decency to troll elsewhere.
I love it. Mr Jones would rather have his a$$ burn up then go back to Chicago. Good choice Mr. Jones. I used to live there.
Climate change is being denied? Probably because there has never been a debate about it. We get told by the progressive left that "It is real, deal with it".
Now, I'm not someone who never looked into it, read studies and the like. I have seen evidence it may exist and I have seen evidence where it does not exist. Yet, not one supporter has ever been willing to have any findings debated, Why is that?
After thinking to myself about why there has never been a debate, I quickly realized the amount of money being thrown at the study of this theory. Many people make many millions of dollars off of the study. If it is shown to be false and proven to be false, then that money is gone. If I made a living off of it, I'd take out ads in the paper about climate change and it's dangers, sign my name to it and put my address where to send the checks.
Then there was the famous "cap and trade" legislation of a few years back. In looking into that I found that DC politicians were going to have the first crack at getting their greedy little fingers into the stack of carbon credits. Carbon credits that could be sold to polluters so they could continue to pollute (so long as they bought the credits). A big get rich quick scheme involving zero investment and all profit. Driven by what? Worries of global climate change. Glad that was shot down once word got out on what it was.
Then there are the accords we hear about The Kyoto accords. Basically, these agreements would remove industry from the US and move it to impoverished nations. Your ability to pollute is based on how poorly your country is performing economically. Africa would benefit and the US would lose. That is just how they set it up. How could that be? Well, because undeveloped nations have no industry and no pollution. That means they are entitled to make a certain amount to reach a set limit. The Kyoto accord is basically a globalization effort covered up by a threat of climate change.
Anyway, I could go on and on. Problem with that is any climate change enthusiast dismissed my entire comment after the first 2 sentences. That is how it works. Question its reliability and you are shunned. That is why everyone should question it and demand solid proof.
The planet is losing nearly 350 billion (with a 'b') tons of ice each and every year, citizen - and the rate of that loss is increasing.
As a physicist, I know of only one way the planet can lose ice. Maybe you know another?
The ice doesn't have any political agenda. It isn't interested in profits. It just melts.
You may not have 'studied' the issue, but scientists around the world have been doing just that for decades. And 97% of them agree with this statement: the planet is warming (rapidly), and humans are causing it.
Bleat, bleat, whine, whine....
citizen-xx - ask Al Gore how much money he has made from his campaigning about global warming.
Snow rain cold air warm air all a result of global scamming, I learned that watching Al Gores cable network he sold to big oil. You moron freaked out chicken little fools! Reflect heat back to earth? Fine now how much would carbon reflect back to space thus preventing heat from entering the earths atmosphere????? The EXACT SAME AMOUNT. Now invent a new scam to pass along the idiot liberal leaning socialist freak industry.
David, thanks for playing and providing a remedial GED level analysis.
Take a course in basic blackbody radiation, and get back to us, David. You're wrong publicly, and at the top of your voice.
You lie, we deny
What I really can't figure out is why you bother to deny global warming. The ice is melting. Droughts are increasing. Temperatures are going up. What possible political benefit do you get from denying the scientific evidence? And why the hell do politics matter on this issue? As the planet warms, the water and food supplies are going to be compromised, making it harder for people to get enough to eat and drink. Ocean levels will rise as storms intensify, thus guaranteeing that low lying coastal areas are simply no longer going to be viable places to live. If you own property in Florida, I strongly advise you to sell.
It doesn't matter whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, your life is going to get more difficult and the future for your children and grandchildren is going to be decidedly unpleasant. So keep on denying. It really doesn't make any difference. All these things are going to happen whether you believe it or not. So why don't you stop being an ignorant ass and figure out a way to reduce the contribution you are making to global warming. You might begin by avoiding blowing so much hot air.
I lived within a stone's throw of this fire site. I've never know a fire to get this close to Ft. Collins. It's frighteningly close to the CSU Vet Med campus.
jkatze,
This one looks even closer than last year. Are the houses on Red Canyon Road at risk?
jkatze -- we were in old-town for dinner last night. The ash was falling like black snow.
Dear Colorado:
This isn't entirely your fault...but you can't say you've really been managing your forests for quite a while now.
I've spent most of my life in your forests. I've seen the deadfall piled up four feet or more in many areas. I've watched as you allowed pine borer beetles to devastate the forests, and you did nothing, because "cutting down the trees just makes the beetles spread." Yeah? Leaving them there to rot spreads the beetles too, morons! I've seen huge, expanding swathes of dead trees spreading for miles and miles over three decades...how is it spreading, since you aren't cutting the dead trees? And did no one ever bother to clue you in that dead trees make great firewood??
Manage your forests, Colorado! Climate change is only going to make this worse.
Exactly, I have seen the same in CA. If you want nature to take care of it, that is what you get. It is not so much the States, as it is the Fed Government. I have seen Fed lands in UT, that are so over grown with dead fall everywhere and you can't even get a wood cutting permit for the dead fall. Thousands of years ago, nature did take care of it with fire, but now there are people living close by.
anne rand
I'll have to say that as a Northern Ca. resident, the Forest Service and Forest Service contractors have been spending big buck's, and time, cleaning up dead fall and forest floor debris the last few years. I'm very glad to see it happening.
Dear Kynetick,
Apparently you aren't aware that most of the forests in Colorado belong to the United States, and not to Colorado.
Snow rain cold air warm air all a result of global scamming, I learned that watching Al Gores cable network he sold to big oil. You moron freaked out chicken little fools! Reflect heat back to earth? Fine now how much would carbon reflect back to space thus preventing heat from entering the earths atmosphere????? The EXACT SAME AMOUNT. Now invent a new scam to pass along the idiot liberal leaning socialist freak industry.
David, you've already been swatted down for exhibiting a hilariously low IQ.
Quit while you're behind.
Dear Kynetick and Chuck and other Colorado residents: Stop the hysterics!
There is very little if anything that can be done about the beetle kill. If you remember last year, a controlled burn go out of hand and a few people died. It is best to let nature take care of it....eventually the beetles eat themselves out of tree and home.
What exact solutions do you suggest to mitigate this...within reason and budget. It's part of a long term and repeating cycle. Critical thinking does not seem to be one your skills.
Yes it has been dry the last two winters here. The one before that the snowpack was heavier than average. But this year there is a tad more snow in the higher mountains and perhaps we will get some spring rains this year. Here in Denver last year was dry, the year before it was wetter than average. This year it has started a bit cooler and wetter than average. No real pattern is obvious.
This fire was human caused and spread by high winds caused by the zonal flow of this latest disturbance. Climate change had nothing to do with it. If you think so, provide some scientific evidence or a causal link.
Here's the link to climate change, Rex.
Winters in the Colorado mountains used to be cold enough to kill off a large portion of the annual pine beetle population. So the damage they could do the following year was limited by the number of offspring those (few) surviving beetles could produce.
That isn't true anymore. Not only are milder winters allowing more beetles to survive, but longer summers are actually allowing two generations of beetles to mature and attack the trees in a single season (instead of just one generation per summer in the past).
The resulting devastation is enormous. Pine beetles have spread north all the way to Alaska now - killing hundreds of millions of trees as they go.
That's how climate enters the picture - not through snowfall amounts, but by temperature.
I totally agree that Climate Change has caused the trees in Colorado to die and the officials seem to be doing nothing about it. However, green trees burn much quicker than dead ones because the sap acts as fuel. Either way Colorado is set to lose all of its forests soon. The beetles are not slowing down at all and I have seen hundreds of miles of dead trees around Winter Park. It's shocking to look at. Not having a snow pack for the second year in a row means severe drought and another record fire season to look forward to. I hope our cabin survives another year. If this continues there won't be much left of Colorful Colorado.
Three points:
(1) The forest service has had a flat or declining budget for years.
(2) Even with a (much) larger budget, it would take a small army and years to clear out some of our worst beetle-kill.
(3) A lot of the burn areas are scrub oak, pinion pine, and grassland, often on state, county, BLM, or private land.
The best way to "manage" a forest is to burn it down. The problem with that is there is no government needed no bimbo needs to climb up a tree and feel useful.
David, you've already been swatted down for exhibiting a hilariously low IQ.
Quit while you're behind.
A guest speaker from the Wildlife Defense Federation was on NPR last weekend providing a critique of the new appointments by the President. The new appopintment for the Department of Energy is supportive of the use of nuclear energy because it provides electrical power without the emission of greenhouse gasses. The Wildlife Defense Federation approved of the appointment, but did not agree with the promotion of the use of nuclear energy. This leavese me in a quandry, if environmentalists are for electric cars and against the generation of electricity using fossil fuels, why do they have such an irrational view of the use of nuclear energy. Wind and solar are augmentations to the energy supply, at best. Solar power is dependent upon the rays of the sun, rays that are absent for much of the day. Wind energy is dependent upon the wind, and not too much or too little of that. Too much wind and the mills need to be shut down because of too much torque on the rotors. Too little and the mills do not create enough charge. One pound of uranium can create more electricity than 100,000 coal cars and the waste can safely be deposited underground in the WIPP site in SW New Mexico and other locations. Even envriornmentalists read their journals by electric light, use electricity to power their computers, charge their electric cars, power their cell phones, and do countless other things. Perhaps we need to follow France's lead and move quickly towards full implementation of a national nuclear energy policy that will allow our nation to phase out fossil fuels and limit the production of green houses gasses.
Good question, Robert.
Environmentalists may protest nuclear power, but climate scientists don't. I'm most pleased that Obama's new appointees have a clear head on this issue.
Snow rain cold air warm air all a result of global scamming, I learned that watching Al Gores cable network he sold to big oil. You moron freaked out chicken little fools! Reflect heat back to earth? Fine now how much would carbon reflect back to space thus preventing heat from entering the earths atmosphere????? The EXACT SAME AMOUNT. Now invent a new scam to pass along the idiot liberal leaning socialist freak industry.
David, you've already been swatted down for exhibiting a hilariously low IQ.
Quit while you're behind.
RE the reasons for the increasing number of fires in Colorado and the mountain west in general:
All of you here give some excellent reasons. Climate change is undoubtedly a big factor, but IMO the biggest problem is man. (Good call, DavInDnvr.) We're loving it to death.
Long before the West was "settled", foothill and mountain fires were common; they started, burned and died on their own. They cleared away sick, old or dead trees and dense underbrush and thus allowed the creation of healthy new forests and meadows. Today, the West is largely owned and (mis)managed by a plethora of federal, state and local agencies: Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs/tribal reservations, national and state forests, county park systems, etc. To my knowledge these agencies do not have a single cohesive land management plan in place -- with or without naturally occurring fires.
In addition, the increasing human population is turning more and more private land into high-value taxable real estate. Many new suburban residents have no idea of how to use fire properly for picnics, much less land management. Winter snows and spring runoffs that once helped stop fires naturally is now water that is siphoned away for use by agriculture and industry hundreds of miles away. Man must fight every mountain fire to protect human resources and market interests, rather than help create forests. Thus, we have old and sick stands of trees that are dying standing up -- vast tinderboxes of fuel for the super-fires we are seeing now.
Yes, we love Colorado and the West perhaps too much. We must figure out how to give these beautiful, fragile lands a more sustainable life, soon.
Just an observation and opinion from an erstwhile Coloradoan circa 1970-80.
Thank you Ziti. I like your IMO...
Snow rain cold air warm air all a result of global scamming, I learned that watching Al Gores cable network he sold to big oil. You moron freaked out chicken little fools! Reflect heat back to earth? Fine now how much would carbon reflect back to space thus preventing heat from entering the earths atmosphere????? The EXACT SAME AMOUNT. Now invent a new scam to pass along the idiot liberal leaning socialist freak industry.
David, you've already been swatted down for exhibiting a hilariously low IQ.
Quit while you're behind.
Well said Ziti.
Sequester and auto cuts not going to help wildfire season this year.
Dorothy
Do you really belive that more forests will be burnt, because of the "sequester"?
The sequester was mr.obammy's idea.. He used this to once again make the Republicans look bad, but ya know, it backfired...
The sequester will probably burn the white house down, obammy closed it. No one there to protect it...
God help us all.
obviously there have never been fires in the entire history of mankind, so its global warming and the only way to solve it is massive new taxes and the growth of the federal government
Where is the tipping point? We lose thousands of acres every year to deforestation. wildfires, and development. We pump tonnes of pollution into the air while populations explode. At what point does the earth become unable to remove the amount of pollution we are creating causing the atmosphere to become increasingly more toxic. This is already happening in china where pollution is having an adverse effect on the population and stunting the growth of children and causing a major increase in respiratory problems. We are destroying the very environment that our planet requires to clean the air and water we depend on for life. When our resources are depleted enough that decisions will have to be made about who gets what they need to live and who will die then revolution will be the only recourse. I pray for us as a species because our time may be very limited if current events and ideologies do not change for the better.
Snow rain cold air warm air all a result of global scamming, I learned that watching Al Gores cable network he sold to big oil. You moron freaked out chicken little fools! Reflect heat back to earth? Fine now how much would carbon reflect back to space thus preventing heat from entering the earths atmosphere????? The EXACT SAME AMOUNT. Now invent a new scam to pass along the idiot liberal leaning socialist freak industry.
David, you've already been swatted down for exhibiting a hilariously low IQ.
Quit while you're behind.
Hi saturnsrim:
All you say is true. But because of the different priorities in other countries, nothing is being done to mitigate these problems, and most likely, never will. If there is a tipping point, we've passed it.
Things are looking better here in the USA.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/16/us-carbon-dioxide-emissions-2012_n_1792167.html
David-1682248
Back to kindergarten for you. Let me explain to you how global warming works so that a two year old can understand. Sunlight travels through space. It does not heat up space. It heats up objects in space. When it strikes the earth greenhouse gases and moisture magnify the light and cause the earth to heat up. The more particles in the air there are the greater amount of particles water vapor has available to attach to. The gases and water in the atmosphere act as a ceiling that traps the reflected heat. You can see this from the high desert in California because the air in the valley near Los Angelas turns brown as the pollution is trapped in the valley during the day. You can actually see the smoke rising and spreading out in the valley and as it cools in the late evening it rises onto the high desert and is carried away by the Santa Anna winds.Most of the pollution is trapped in the first 10 miles of the earths surface and the first 1000 to 5000 ft. traps 86% of greenhouse gases during daylight hours.
Here in the southeast Sacramento mountains in New Mexico, it is dry, windy and has all the promises of a severe fire season. About three in a row now. Where I am, we were evacuated twice last year. This not good.
The God of the US Constitution is destroying your state for your wicked attacks on the 2nd amendment. Ha ha ha! :D
Smokey The Bear is a liar: "Only you can prevent fires, only you!!" There is this thing called lightening. Now can I control the lightening?
Lightening? As in hair color? Or as in losing weight?
Caption is wrong on photo above. Horsetooth is west of Ft. Collins.
Thank you Ziti. I like your IMO...
Coloradans = Selfish
When the AP reporters do their stories I wish they would check their directions. Horsetooth Resevoir is West of Ft. Collins not East! Google Maps is a good free things AP!
Snow rain cold air warm air all a result of global scamming, I learned that watching Al Gores cable network he sold to big oil. You moron freaked out chicken little fools! Reflect heat back to earth? Fine now how much would carbon reflect back to space thus preventing heat from entering the earths atmosphere????? The EXACT SAME AMOUNT. Now invent a new scam to pass along the idiot liberal leaning socialist freak industry.
David, you've already been swatted down for exhibiting a hilariously low IQ.
Quit while you're behind.
Well at least someone blamed Bush
West of Fort Collins, people. The Reservoir is west of town.
Definitely a very bad sign unless, some well needed spring rains saturate drought stricken areas with at least normal rainfall amounts. Haven't researched lately what Oceanography scientists are predicting for pacific ocean currents warming and cooling trends may be for the spring of 2013, but hopefully the previous trend of cooling reverses course and begins to warm.... "The atmosphere and ocean are linked because of evaporation and precipitation as well as thermal flux (and solar insolation). Wind stress is a major driver of ocean currents while the ocean is a sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide."
NOAA expects severe-to-exceptional drought to persist or intensify in most of the west and southwest, Mac.
ENSO is in a neutral state, so I don't think we can hope for a lot of relief from this pattern - at least not for the next 3 months.
we didt start the fire its black flag or red flag dont trust you media they are satan!