Within days of the one-year anniversary of the Waldo Canyon Fire, I took a picture from my back porch last night of a small wildfire at the north end of the USAF Academy. They got that one out overnight...and then the Black Forest fire started today and they sent us home early from work to get ready for evacuation. It's about 10 miles SE of us right now, and moving SSE if the winds remain as predicted, so we should be ok...if winds remain as predicted.
KKTV ReportingHaving an RV sure does make this easier. We keep it pretty close to ready and I just filled the freshwater tank. Clothes are packed in the house...just need to take them out with some food and drive away. We keep the keepsakes packed in small boxes in the storage room so it'll take us about 10 minutes to load them into the other car. It's nice knowing I can use my vacation-mobile to be a little more prepared for natural disasters.
Lots of folks have already lost homes but no reports yet of injuries. Our community is coming together quickly and opening up animal shelters, people shelters, donation centers, etc. The military bases nearby (we have several) are sending personnel and equipment to help, and putting more on standby so they can relieve the first crews. It's really pretty amazing to see what people will do for total strangers in times like this. (Of course, it's also amazing to see how others will take advantage of situations like this.)
There are three other fires raging in Colorado right now.