2002 Colorado: Wildfires

  Locations of visitors to this page
be notified of website changes? subscribe
wildfile

 

Family Reunion

Wildfires

SFO -> LAX

LAX -> DEN

Independence Day

Cave of the Winds

Underground

Breakfast at No. One

Garden of the Gods

Royal Gorge

Bowl of Cherries

Masala Tea

Seven Falls

Native American dancers

Broadmoor Hotel

The Creek

Helen Hunt Jackson

Castaways

DEN -> LAX -> SFO

 

Timber Lodge

Eats in CO

NORAD

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

2002 Colorado: Wildfires

fires We don't have a television in the house, and without a commute I just don't listen to the National Public Radio crown jewel All Things Considered, so I'm not really up on current events. I read a newsweekly, and the local newspaper a couple times a week, but that's not really being informed by any stretch of the imagination. I knew there were fires somewhere between the coasts, but that's about as much attention as I gave the matter.

As the time for our 2002 Colorado family get-together drew closer I was surprised to see images like these. Our plans came into jeopardy. Multiple fires, smoke drifting for hundreds of miles, evacuations, fire-fighters killed on the ground, fire-fighting aircraft crashing with fatalities. These aren't the things I wanted to hear as I planned the finer points of our next trip. (Bizarre is that two of the three biggest fires were started deliberately by forest service personnel. The Rodeo fire was [allegedly] started by Leonard Gregg, a contract firefighter who wanted some seasonal work. The Hayman fire was [allegedly] started by Terry Lynn Barton, a U.S. Forest Service employee. The Chediski fire apparently began as a signal fire lit by a lost hiker.)

A house is threatened by a wall of flames from a new wildefire which originated west of the Missionary Ridge fire, north of Durango, Colorado.(AP/Charlie Riedel)

It's not that the multiple fires in Colorado are theatening Colorado Springs (our destination), but the smoke from the Rodeo-Chediski fire in Arizona is making things unhealthy for adults, not to mention the elderly (our 90-year-old grandmother) and children (Felicia and Adam's 7-month-old, our 10-month-old Lila and 3-and-a-half-year-old Isaac).

Firefighters set a controlled burn in the Tonto National forest near Red Lake, Arizona, in the hopes of stopping the Rodeo-Chediski fire's westward advance. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

A friend of mine who happens to live there answered my email thusly:

You have good reason to be concerned. It varies from day to day, but generally it's bad. My wife K---- has been suffering considerably; she has trouble sleeping at night and displays symptoms that look like allergies all day long. I'm a fairly insensitive brute and so am not as bothered, although there have been days when even I could smell the smoke. The air is constantly hazy. I understand that a great deal of our smoke is coming from Arizona, so even if the Colorado fires are brought under control (whatever that means), we'll still be getting smoke from Arizona. I don't mean to sound too discouraging, and at the same time, I don't want you to run into health problems, especially for your more vulnerable folks.

Flame retardant is dropped on Forest Lakes, Arizona, as they contain 5 per cent of the fire which has burned 373,000 acres so far. (AP/Ron Heflin)

Fire crew chief Mike Lerma leads his inter-agency crew out of the forest after weather halted pop-up operations on the eastern flank of the Rodeo-Chediski fire west of Show Low, Arizona. Currently 5 per cent of 410,000 acres are contained. (Reuters/Jeff Mitchell)

We start making contingency plans: perhaps Steamboat Springs? A direct flight to SBS or HDN is incredibly expensive, but perhaps that's only because we're travelling close to the Independence Day holiday. Is it unsafe to spend time in DEN while waiting for the plane? Or can we survive getting into our rental car and high-tailing it out of there with the air conditioning turned on?

The east flank of the Rodeo fire was stopped cold by a road and a prescribed burn. One of the worst wildfires ever, it'scharred nearly 410,000 acres. (AP/George Frey, pool)

The air now seems pretty good. We've had some rain and wind, and the haze is gone. K----'s much better as well. Things have much improved. In theory, we'll be getting more rain over the next several weeks, which will also help. Of course, conditions could deteriorate at most any time, but it's been nice for a day or two now.

Well, that's better. Let's see what happens en route.

previous previousnext next

Have you found errors nontrivial or marginal, factual, analytical and illogical, arithmetical, temporal, or even typographical? Please let me know; drop me email. Thanks!
 

What's New?  •  Search this Site  •  Website Map
Travel  •  Burning Man  •  San Francisco
Kilts! Kilts! Kilts!  •  Macintosh  •  Technology  •  CU-SeeMe
This page is copyrighted 1993-2010 by Lila, Isaac, Rose, and Mickey Sattler. All rights reserved.