June 27, 2012 4:28 AM
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32K ordered to flee as Colorado blaze doubles in size; Air Force Academy partially closed
(CBS/AP) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Authorities say it remains too dangerous for them to fully assess the damage from a destructive wildfire threatening Colorado's second-largest city.
Colorado Springs emergency management director Brett Waters said Wednesday morning that officials don't know how many houses have been destroyed in the blaze that has forced mandatory evacuations for more than 32,000 residents.
The fire is nowhere near contained, but incident commander Rich Harvey says firefighters have been able to establish and maintain a line of protection in some areas.
Fire information officer Rob Dyerberg says the blaze doubled in size to about 24 square miles overnight Tuesday into Wednesday.
Thunderstorms are expected in the afternoon, but Harvey says they could bring unpredictable winds that would hinder firefighters' efforts near the city of 419,000 people.
As earlier reported, heavy smoke and ash billowed from the mountain foothills west of the city. Bright yellow and orange flames flared in the night, often signaling another home lost to the Waldo Canyon Fire, the No. 1 priority for the nation's firefighters.
Interstate 25, which runs through Colorado Springs, was briefly closed to southbound traffic Tuesday. All told, officials said, evacuation orders affected as many as 32,000 residents. Fire information officer Rob Dyerberg said Wednesday the fire grew by more than 12.5 square miles late Tuesday to 24 square miles.
Record heat hampers wildfire fight
Western wildfires threaten tourist destinations
Video: Firefighters focus on steering Colo. wildfire
"It was like looking at the worst movie set you could imagine," Gov. John Hickenlooper said after flying over the 9-square-mile fire late Tuesday. "It's almost surreal. You look at that, and it's like nothing I've seen before."
With flames cresting a ridge high above its breathtaking, 28-square-mile campus, the Air Force Academy told more than 2,100 residents to evacuate 600 households. There was no immediate word on whether a new class of 1,045 cadets would report as scheduled on Thursday.
A curtain of flame and smoke teetered above the academy's Falcon Stadium; billowing gray clouds formed a backdrop to its aluminum, glass and steel Cadet Chapel, an icon of the academy. Elsewhere, police officers directing traffic and fleeing residents covered their faces with T-shirts and bandanas to breathe through the smoke.
"Every day I say I should pack a bag and have it ready [because] I have medicine and oxygen and stuff I need. And I didn't. There's the lesson," Owosko said.
Scott Deeds took only his most precious possession when he left his home Tuesday.
"This flag is my son's. I lost him in Iraq. I want to make sure I take that down," he said.
Colorado Springs Fire Chief Richard Brown insisted that "many, many homes" were saved by firefighters. And Hickenlooper, who spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano Tuesday, told anxious residents that "We have all the support of the U.S. government. We have all the support of the state of Colorado. And we want everybody here to know that."
Throughout the interior West, firefighters have toiled for days in searing, record-setting heat against fires fueled by prolonged drought. Most, if not all, of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana were under red flag warnings, meaning extreme fire danger.
In central Utah, authorities found one woman dead Tuesday when they returned to an evacuated area, marking the first casualty in a blaze that consumed at least two dozen homes. Sanpete County sheriff's officials said they hadn't identified the victim, whose remains were found during a damage assessment of the 60-square-mile Wood Hollow Fire near Indianola.
The nation is experiencing "a super-heated spike on top of a decades-long warming trend," said Derek Arndt, head of climate monitoring at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.
The Waldo Canyon fire, which started Saturday, was 5 percent contained before 65-mph wind gusts sent it surging toward Colorado Springs. The cause was under investigation.
To the north in Boulder County, officials evacuated 26 households when a wildfire erupted Tuesday afternoon following a lightning storm. No structures were immediately threatened, but the National Center for Atmospheric Research, perched on a hilltop in front of Boulder's famous Flatirons foothills, closed as a precaution.
And in northern Colorado, the 136-square-mile High Park Fire has destroyed 257 homes and killed one woman, authorities said. That fire was triggered by lightning June 9.
Hickenlooper insisted Colorado was open to tourism, saying Colorado's fires had affected just about a half-percent of all of the state's public lands and perhaps 400 of its 10,000 campground sites.
In Utah, officials said the Wood Hollow Fire was 15 percent contained. High winds forced authorities to shut down part of U.S. 89 near Indianola, and evacuations were called for Fairview, a town of about 1,100 residents.
Elsewhere in the West:
-- A fire that charred nearly 70 square miles west of Ruidoso, N.M., was 90 percent contained, with many residents allowed to return home.
-- A wildfire north of Helena, Mont., destroyed four homes and forced additional evacuations. Gov. Brian Schweitzer issued a state of emergency for four counties.
-- A wildfire in the Bridger-Teton National Forest grew from about 300 acres to 2,000 acres Tuesday, marking the first major wildfire of the season in western Wyoming.
end quote from:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57461483/32k-ordered-to-flee-as-colorado-blaze-doubles-in-size-air-force-academy-partially-closed/
After looking at some of the upscale neighborhoods burning down, I don't remember anything this bad since the fire in San Diego and the one in Oakland that burned 100s of homes years ago now.
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