American Wildfires
- Thread starter hanimmal
- Start date
Sir Napsalot
Well-Known Member
I don't know where you got that number as the scale only goes to 500
TacoMac
Well-Known Member
xtsho
Well-Known Member
They caught this methy loser looting in Mollala. Not Antifa but of the racist right wing persuasion. As are others that have been arrested for arson and looting in the fire areas. Looking at his facebook page it has no content but 1 friend. Following that leads you to the local chapter of trump supporters.
www.oregonlive.com
Here he was in 2011. That meth sure does a number on those foolish enough to use it. Just another Faces of Meth candidate.
Molalla police arrest local man accused of theft, attempted burglary in evacuated area
Duane Schlip, born in 1964, was arrested by Molalla police Saturday while he was “casing neighborhoods,” near Big Meadow, according to police.
Here he was in 2011. That meth sure does a number on those foolish enough to use it. Just another Faces of Meth candidate.
Funkentelechy
Well-Known Member
Dr.Amber Trichome
Well-Known Member
That is very cool. What a concept!
Unclebaldrick
Well-Known Member
It would be hard to find many meth heads that aren't Trump supporters.“The entire defund the police is ridiculous. What are you going to do when there are no police and meth crazed lunatics run rampant across cities.”
Sure sounds like a Fox News headline.
Again the actual defunding argument has merit and perhaps caring for and help the “crazed meth heads” instead of buying more guns to shoot them just may work better? The existing model sure doesn’t seem to be working now does it? The police budget for my city is the highest portion of our expenditures and keeps rising at double digits yet our opioid deaths have kept going up, fueling the crimes we keep hiring more cops to stop ........ just think about that and does that seem logical?
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
Dr.Amber Trichome
Well-Known Member
Yes! I love planting trees. That was a beautiful video about saving the trees and maybe even the world. I have lived in that part of the country and it sure is pretty , I would be so sad if all those giant redwoods were burned down. Some of them are so big you can even drive your car through the trunk and there is nothing like the sound of wind blowing through the tops of them. On a windy day you can hear the trees start to howl from miles away and it starts as a whisper and gets louder and louder and the sound shakes the ground and you start to feel the breeze and then the winds and Then it blows right over you and the sound dies down and the wind calms down and it’s a very magical experience .
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
Because the sock puppet troll said so? Even though there is obvious evidence that it is not the case?
It is horrifying that this fire happened and anyone/everyone that caused or exacerbated it has a lot of life loss on their hands. But your politicizing it is wrong. I would check why you are programmed to think of this happening as anything to do with Trump other than the side story of Trump's continued war against our environment in doing things like repealing emission standards, push for burning of fossil fuels for energy, and withdrawing us from the Paris climate agreement for no good reason other than he is a troll.
I have friends there too. And am extremely worried for them, because even though he was a mountain over from the (Bald something fire), when I asked about next fire season I am not sure if he really considered that yet.
You talk a lot but never seem to actually back up your trolls with any actual information. People can say whatever they want, but just like Dear Leader has shown over and over again with Trump's lies, it doesn't make it true.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/18/joe-rogan-antifa-oregon-fires/
On his latest podcast episode on Thursday, Joe Rogan took aim at protesters in Portland, Ore., calling their clashes with police “madness.” For further evidence, he pointed to the massive forest fires tearing through Oregon this month.
“They’ve arrested left-wing people for lighting these forest fires,” he said on “The Joe Rogan Experience” to his millions of listeners. “You know, air-quote, ‘activists.’ This is also something that’s not widely being reported.”
That’s not true, according to both the FBI and local law enforcement in Oregon. In fact, those agencies have urged people to stop spreading claims that antifa members are starting fires, warning that the misinformation is hampering efforts to battle the wildfires and fueling a dangerous surge of vigilantism.
“Conspiracy theories and misinformation take valuable resources away [from] local fire and police agencies working around-the-clock to bring these fires under control,” the FBI said last week in a statement. “Please help our entire community by only sharing validated information from official sources.”
The backlash over Rogan’s false claim has heaped more pressure on Spotify, which recently signed the massively popular podcaster to a deal reportedly worth up to $100 million. Spotify also met with employees this week angry that the service is streaming Rogan episodes that critics have called transphobic, Vice reported.
Spotify didn’t immediately return a message from The Washington Post early Friday.
False claims about left-wing arsonists have proliferated as the fires have killed eight people and burned roughly 1 million acres in Oregon. While there have been a handful of arrests tied to the fires, law enforcement has emphatically denied any ties to extremist groups.
“There’s no reason to believe that this is politically motivated,” Tighe O’Meara, the police chief in Ashland, Ore., told NPR on Sunday of his department’s criminal probe into the Almeda Fire. “Anybody that is speculating in that direction is being reckless. … It’s irresponsible.”
The misinformation has led to real problems. When a meme went viral claiming that the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office had arrested “six antifa members” last week, the sheriff’s office was flooded with calls that tied up officers and operators. Unfounded fears of extremist fire-starters and false reports of looting have also led vigilantes to set up illegal roadblocks and hold a photojournalist at gunpoint.
With his millions of followers, Rogan is among the most visible figures to repeat the debunked claim, which has also been parroted by Fox News host Laura Ingraham. QAnon-affiliated accounts have also pushed the conspiracy theory, according to the Oregonian. On Saturday, a sheriff’s deputy in Clackamas County was suspended for making similar claims.
Rogan repeated those false allegations on Thursday during a longer discussion of the unrest in Portland with Douglas Murray, a conservative British author.
“There’s a madness going on there,” Rogan said, referring to the protests. “You want to talk about madness of crowds. … That exemplifies that right now.”
After claiming that “left-wing” people had been arrested for setting fires, he suggested that Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) should be grilled over how to stop them.
“I would love to talk to the mayor and say, ‘What is your strategy for ending this? Are you hoping this is just going to die down?’” Rogan said.
Rogan’s show began streaming on Sept. 1 on Spotify, which also uploaded 11 years of his archives. But the service didn’t include some of his more controversial past interviews, including episodes with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Entertainment Weekly reported.
Rogan made headlines earlier this week after suggesting that President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden come onto his podcast for a debate — an idea Trump quickly endorsed on Twitter. Critics on Thursday pointed to Rogan’s misinformation about the forest fires as a prime reason for Biden to decline.
“I can’t imagine why Joe Biden wouldn’t trust Joe Rogan to be a debate moderator,” tweeted Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
Fogdog
Well-Known Member
The money is good, the work is easy and you don't ever need to check your sources or check facts.
All you need to do is give up your sense of honor. For Joe that wasn't a difficult choice.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
These fires are so scary, best of luck everyone.
https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-sacramento-marijuana-cannabis-fires-dcdfa5f82a53302d4d9b9d22e1f5b320
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California’s largest wildfire is threatening a marijuana growing enclave, and authorities said many of the locals have refused to evacuate and abandon their maturing crops even as weather forecasters predict more hot, dry and windy conditions that could fan flames.
The wildfire called the August Complex is nearing the small communities of Post Mountain and Trinity Pines, about 200 miles (322 kilometers) northwest of Sacramento, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Law enforcement officers went door to door warning of the encroaching fire danger but could not force residents to evacuate, Trinity County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Nate Trujillo said.
“It’s mainly growers,” Trujillo said. “And a lot of them, they don’t want to leave because that is their livelihood.”
MORE STORIES:
Numerous studies in recent years have linked bigger U.S. wildfires to global warming from the burning of coal, oil and gas, especially because climate change has made California much drier. A drier California means plants are more flammable.
The threatened marijuana growing area is in the Emerald Triangle, a three-county corner of Northern California that by some estimates is the nation’s largest cannabis-producing region.
People familiar with Trinity Pines said the community has up to 40 legal farms, with more than 10 times that number in hidden, illegal growing areas.
Growers are wary of leaving the plants vulnerable to flames or thieves. Each farm has crops worth half a million dollars or more and many are within days or weeks of harvest.
One estimate put the value of the area’s legal marijuana crop at about $20 million.
“There (are) millions of dollars, millions and millions of dollars of marijuana out there,” Trujillo said. “Some of those plants are 16 feet (5 meters) tall, and they are all in the budding stages of growth right now.”
Gunfire in the region is common. A recent night brought what locals dubbed the “roll call” of cannabis cultivators shooting rounds from pistols and automatic weapons as warnings to outsiders, said Post Mountain volunteer Fire Chief Astrid Dobo, who also manages legal cannabis farms.
Mike McMillan, spokesman for the federal incident command team managing the northern section of the August Complex, said fire officials plan to deliver a clear message that ”we are not going to die to save people. That is not our job.”
“We are going to knock door to door and tell them once again,” McMillan said. “However, if they choose to stay and if the fire situation becomes, as we say, very dynamic and very dangerous … we are not going to risk our lives.”
A firefighter was killed and another was injured on Aug. 31 while working on the fire. Diana Jones, a volunteer firefighter from Texas, was among 26 people who have died since more than two dozen major wildfires broke out across the state last month.
A memorial service was held Friday for a veteran firefighter, Charles Morton, 39, a squad boss with the Big Bear Interagency Hotshot Crew who died Sept. 17 while battling the El Dorado Fire in the San Bernardino National Forest east of Los Angeles.
“I know that Charlie was a very skilled, in fact extraordinary, firefighter and a fire leader,” U.S. Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen told the gathering at The Rock Church in San Bernardino.
“He committed himself, often for weeks and months on end, to protecting lives, communities and natural resources all around this country in service to fellow Americans.”
The Butte County Sheriff’s Office on Friday released the identity of another of the 15 people killed in a rampaging forest fire earlier this month. The remains of Linda Longenbach, 71, of Berry Creek, were found on Sept. 10 in a roadway about 10 feet from an ATV, close to the body of a man previously identified as Paul Winer, 68.
A relative told investigators the victims were aware of the fire and chose not to evacuate.
Efforts to extinguish the wildfires have benefitted recently from low winds and normal temperatures along with and moist air flowing inland from the Pacific. But forecasters said that weather pattern will reverse during the weekend as a ridge of high pressure boosts temperatures and generates gusty winds flowing from the interior to the coast.
Full Coverage: Wildfires
In northern and central areas of the state the strongest winds were forecast to occur from Saturday night into Sunday morning, followed by another burst Sunday night into Monday.
The Pacific Gas & Electric utility was tracking the forecasts to determine if it would be necessary to shut off power to areas where gusts could damage the company’s equipment or hurl debris into lines that can ignite flammable vegetation.
The utility posted a power cut “watch alert” for Saturday evening through Monday morning. If the shutoff happens, about 21,000 customers in portions of northern Butte, Plumas and Yuba counties would lose power, PG&E said.
When heavy winds were predicted earlier this month, PG&E cut power to about 167,000 homes and businesses in central and northern California in a more targeted approach after being criticized last year for acting too broadly when it blacked out 2 million customers to prevent fires.
PG&E equipment has sparked past large wildfires, including the 2018 fire that destroyed much of the Sierra foothills town of Paradise and killed 85 people.
In Southern California, meteorologists anticipate very hot and dry weather conditions with weak to locally moderate Santa Ana winds on Monday.
The U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Region announced Friday that it is extending the closure of all nine national forests in California due to concerns including fire conditions and critical limitations on firefighting resources. The closure orders are being re-evaluated daily, the service said.
https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-sacramento-marijuana-cannabis-fires-dcdfa5f82a53302d4d9b9d22e1f5b320
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California’s largest wildfire is threatening a marijuana growing enclave, and authorities said many of the locals have refused to evacuate and abandon their maturing crops even as weather forecasters predict more hot, dry and windy conditions that could fan flames.
The wildfire called the August Complex is nearing the small communities of Post Mountain and Trinity Pines, about 200 miles (322 kilometers) northwest of Sacramento, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Law enforcement officers went door to door warning of the encroaching fire danger but could not force residents to evacuate, Trinity County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Nate Trujillo said.
“It’s mainly growers,” Trujillo said. “And a lot of them, they don’t want to leave because that is their livelihood.”
MORE STORIES:
- – Scorched California faces more hot, dry and windy weather
- – Wildfires taint West Coast vineyards with taste of smoke
- – Utility equipment eyed as possible source of fire near LA
Numerous studies in recent years have linked bigger U.S. wildfires to global warming from the burning of coal, oil and gas, especially because climate change has made California much drier. A drier California means plants are more flammable.
The threatened marijuana growing area is in the Emerald Triangle, a three-county corner of Northern California that by some estimates is the nation’s largest cannabis-producing region.
People familiar with Trinity Pines said the community has up to 40 legal farms, with more than 10 times that number in hidden, illegal growing areas.
Growers are wary of leaving the plants vulnerable to flames or thieves. Each farm has crops worth half a million dollars or more and many are within days or weeks of harvest.
One estimate put the value of the area’s legal marijuana crop at about $20 million.
“There (are) millions of dollars, millions and millions of dollars of marijuana out there,” Trujillo said. “Some of those plants are 16 feet (5 meters) tall, and they are all in the budding stages of growth right now.”
Gunfire in the region is common. A recent night brought what locals dubbed the “roll call” of cannabis cultivators shooting rounds from pistols and automatic weapons as warnings to outsiders, said Post Mountain volunteer Fire Chief Astrid Dobo, who also manages legal cannabis farms.
Mike McMillan, spokesman for the federal incident command team managing the northern section of the August Complex, said fire officials plan to deliver a clear message that ”we are not going to die to save people. That is not our job.”
“We are going to knock door to door and tell them once again,” McMillan said. “However, if they choose to stay and if the fire situation becomes, as we say, very dynamic and very dangerous … we are not going to risk our lives.”
A firefighter was killed and another was injured on Aug. 31 while working on the fire. Diana Jones, a volunteer firefighter from Texas, was among 26 people who have died since more than two dozen major wildfires broke out across the state last month.
A memorial service was held Friday for a veteran firefighter, Charles Morton, 39, a squad boss with the Big Bear Interagency Hotshot Crew who died Sept. 17 while battling the El Dorado Fire in the San Bernardino National Forest east of Los Angeles.
“I know that Charlie was a very skilled, in fact extraordinary, firefighter and a fire leader,” U.S. Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen told the gathering at The Rock Church in San Bernardino.
“He committed himself, often for weeks and months on end, to protecting lives, communities and natural resources all around this country in service to fellow Americans.”
The Butte County Sheriff’s Office on Friday released the identity of another of the 15 people killed in a rampaging forest fire earlier this month. The remains of Linda Longenbach, 71, of Berry Creek, were found on Sept. 10 in a roadway about 10 feet from an ATV, close to the body of a man previously identified as Paul Winer, 68.
A relative told investigators the victims were aware of the fire and chose not to evacuate.
Efforts to extinguish the wildfires have benefitted recently from low winds and normal temperatures along with and moist air flowing inland from the Pacific. But forecasters said that weather pattern will reverse during the weekend as a ridge of high pressure boosts temperatures and generates gusty winds flowing from the interior to the coast.
Full Coverage: Wildfires
In northern and central areas of the state the strongest winds were forecast to occur from Saturday night into Sunday morning, followed by another burst Sunday night into Monday.
The Pacific Gas & Electric utility was tracking the forecasts to determine if it would be necessary to shut off power to areas where gusts could damage the company’s equipment or hurl debris into lines that can ignite flammable vegetation.
The utility posted a power cut “watch alert” for Saturday evening through Monday morning. If the shutoff happens, about 21,000 customers in portions of northern Butte, Plumas and Yuba counties would lose power, PG&E said.
When heavy winds were predicted earlier this month, PG&E cut power to about 167,000 homes and businesses in central and northern California in a more targeted approach after being criticized last year for acting too broadly when it blacked out 2 million customers to prevent fires.
PG&E equipment has sparked past large wildfires, including the 2018 fire that destroyed much of the Sierra foothills town of Paradise and killed 85 people.
In Southern California, meteorologists anticipate very hot and dry weather conditions with weak to locally moderate Santa Ana winds on Monday.
The U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Region announced Friday that it is extending the closure of all nine national forests in California due to concerns including fire conditions and critical limitations on firefighting resources. The closure orders are being re-evaluated daily, the service said.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-san-francisco-fires-california-napa-db4d2a73f2d979194646c122c28d513b
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California is poised to hit a fearsome milestone: 4 million acres (1.6 million hectares) burned this year by wildfires that have killed 31 people and incinerated hundreds of homes in what is already the worst fire season on record.
Flames have scorched an area larger than Connecticut. Fire crews at a blaze in the wine country north of San Francisco were on high alert Friday as forecasters warned of extreme fire danger into Saturday.
Powerful winds didn’t materialize early Friday, allowing fire crews a chance to make gains. But winds up to 30 mph (48 kph) were forecast to push through the hills of Napa and Sonoma counties as the Glass Fire, which exploded in size earlier in the week, threatens more than 28,000 homes and other buildings.
“So far we have not seen the velocity of the winds that we were expecting,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief Mark Brunton said. “But there will be gusts and ... we do have hot embers and it won’t take much to take that and blow it into a very dry receptive fuel bed. That gives us cause for concern.”
Winds were blowing at higher elevations on the western side of the fire. Crews expected a long battle to keep flames from jumping containment lines and to prevent spot fires from leaping ahead to spark new blazes.
MORE STORIES:
The area was also experiencing high temperatures and thick smoke that fouled the air throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Numerous studies have linked bigger wildfires in America to climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas. Scientists say climate change has made California much drier, meaning trees and other plants are more flammable.
The Glass Fire is the fourth major blaze in the region in three years and comes ahead of the third anniversary of an Oct. 8, 2017, wildfire that killed 22 people.
Around the state, 17,000 firefighters were battling nearly two dozen major blazes. Virtually all the damage has occurred since mid-August, when five of the six largest fires in state history erupted. Lightning strikes caused some of the most devastating blazes.
Cal Fire Deputy Chief Jonathan Cox said wildfires have scorched 3.9 million acres in California since Aug. 15. That figure, which works out to more than 6,000 square miles (15,500 square kilometers), is astonishing even in a state that has had its fair share of fires.
“We’re at a historic moment where we are going to cross the 4 million acres burned mark in California this year,” Cox said. “And unfortunately, we’re just getting into some of the most critical fire months in California.”
The death toll increased to 31 people after a person burned in the LNU Lightning Complex died from their injuries, Cal Fire said in a statement. That cluster of fires sparked by lightning in mid-August in the San Francisco Bay Area was fully contained Thursday.
Fire officials said the Glass Fire was their top priority. Since erupting Sunday, the fire has destroyed nearly 600 buildings, including 220 homes and nearly the same number of commercial structures.
Full Coverage: Wildfires
About 80,000 people were under evacuation orders and officials warned that more were possible. Fire and public safety officials asked people to remain vigilant, stay out of evacuation zones and quit demanding that officers let them back into off-limits neighborhoods.
About 150 miles (240 kilometers) to the north of wine country, the Zogg Fire, which also erupted during Sunday’s high winds and grew quickly, has killed four people and destroyed 153 buildings.
The weekend was expected to usher in some cooling — or less intense heat — and long-range forecast models hinted at the possibility of rain.
Hurricane Marie, spinning in the Pacific southwest of Baja California, was expected to weaken by the middle of next week but leftover tropical moisture may be pulled northward and bring “impressive rainfall” to Northern California, forecasters said.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California is poised to hit a fearsome milestone: 4 million acres (1.6 million hectares) burned this year by wildfires that have killed 31 people and incinerated hundreds of homes in what is already the worst fire season on record.
Flames have scorched an area larger than Connecticut. Fire crews at a blaze in the wine country north of San Francisco were on high alert Friday as forecasters warned of extreme fire danger into Saturday.
Powerful winds didn’t materialize early Friday, allowing fire crews a chance to make gains. But winds up to 30 mph (48 kph) were forecast to push through the hills of Napa and Sonoma counties as the Glass Fire, which exploded in size earlier in the week, threatens more than 28,000 homes and other buildings.
“So far we have not seen the velocity of the winds that we were expecting,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief Mark Brunton said. “But there will be gusts and ... we do have hot embers and it won’t take much to take that and blow it into a very dry receptive fuel bed. That gives us cause for concern.”
Winds were blowing at higher elevations on the western side of the fire. Crews expected a long battle to keep flames from jumping containment lines and to prevent spot fires from leaping ahead to spark new blazes.
MORE STORIES:
- – Winds intensifying as firefighters battle fire in California
- – Added Force: Baby Yoda a boost on Western wildfire lines
- – 4th person killed in devastating California wildfire
The area was also experiencing high temperatures and thick smoke that fouled the air throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Numerous studies have linked bigger wildfires in America to climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas. Scientists say climate change has made California much drier, meaning trees and other plants are more flammable.
The Glass Fire is the fourth major blaze in the region in three years and comes ahead of the third anniversary of an Oct. 8, 2017, wildfire that killed 22 people.
Around the state, 17,000 firefighters were battling nearly two dozen major blazes. Virtually all the damage has occurred since mid-August, when five of the six largest fires in state history erupted. Lightning strikes caused some of the most devastating blazes.
Cal Fire Deputy Chief Jonathan Cox said wildfires have scorched 3.9 million acres in California since Aug. 15. That figure, which works out to more than 6,000 square miles (15,500 square kilometers), is astonishing even in a state that has had its fair share of fires.
“We’re at a historic moment where we are going to cross the 4 million acres burned mark in California this year,” Cox said. “And unfortunately, we’re just getting into some of the most critical fire months in California.”
The death toll increased to 31 people after a person burned in the LNU Lightning Complex died from their injuries, Cal Fire said in a statement. That cluster of fires sparked by lightning in mid-August in the San Francisco Bay Area was fully contained Thursday.
Fire officials said the Glass Fire was their top priority. Since erupting Sunday, the fire has destroyed nearly 600 buildings, including 220 homes and nearly the same number of commercial structures.
Full Coverage: Wildfires
About 80,000 people were under evacuation orders and officials warned that more were possible. Fire and public safety officials asked people to remain vigilant, stay out of evacuation zones and quit demanding that officers let them back into off-limits neighborhoods.
About 150 miles (240 kilometers) to the north of wine country, the Zogg Fire, which also erupted during Sunday’s high winds and grew quickly, has killed four people and destroyed 153 buildings.
The weekend was expected to usher in some cooling — or less intense heat — and long-range forecast models hinted at the possibility of rain.
Hurricane Marie, spinning in the Pacific southwest of Baja California, was expected to weaken by the middle of next week but leftover tropical moisture may be pulled northward and bring “impressive rainfall” to Northern California, forecasters said.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
Stay safe Colorado and everywhere else.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/10/23/colorados-largest-wildfires-state-history-include-two-currently-burning/3743269001/
FORT COLLINS — The two largest wildfires in Colorado history are now burning at the same time.
About 700 square miles of wildfires are burning in Colorado, contributing to the 940 square miles set ablaze in the state since July 31.
The Cameron Peak Fire, which was first reported Aug. 13, is the largest since records have been kept — about 320 square miles. The East Troublesome Fire, which was first reported Oct. 14, is No. 2 on the list at about 265 square miles.
Colorado's one-time largest fire, Pine Gulch, also occurred this year. It's the only major fire in the state to be completely contained this year, which occurred Sept. 24. It burned about 217 square miles north of Grand Junction. The Cameron Peak fire surpassed it Oct. 14. The East Troublesome Fire surpassed it Thursday.
Cameron Peak and East Troublesome are about 10 miles apart.
“There’s certainly the potential” for the two fires to come together “given the alignment of some of the drainages and wind patterns that may occur,” East Troublesome Fire incident commander Noel Livingston said in a Thursday evening update.
But it’s not likely, he said.
The 275 square-mile Mullen Fire is also burning partly in Colorado, though most of it is in Wyoming.
One of the drivers of the unprecedented late wildfire season is the drought gripping the state. Colorado has been unusually dry since spring. Coupled with the vast majority of 5,300 square miles of lodgepole and ponderosa killed by the mountain pine beetle in the past few decades, there's a lot of fuel for wildfires.
The Cameron Peak, East Troublesome and CalWood fires (about 10 miles from Boulder) have displaced thousands of Coloradans. The American Red Cross is currently serving an estimated 2,000 evacuees.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/10/23/colorados-largest-wildfires-state-history-include-two-currently-burning/3743269001/
FORT COLLINS — The two largest wildfires in Colorado history are now burning at the same time.
About 700 square miles of wildfires are burning in Colorado, contributing to the 940 square miles set ablaze in the state since July 31.
The Cameron Peak Fire, which was first reported Aug. 13, is the largest since records have been kept — about 320 square miles. The East Troublesome Fire, which was first reported Oct. 14, is No. 2 on the list at about 265 square miles.
Colorado's one-time largest fire, Pine Gulch, also occurred this year. It's the only major fire in the state to be completely contained this year, which occurred Sept. 24. It burned about 217 square miles north of Grand Junction. The Cameron Peak fire surpassed it Oct. 14. The East Troublesome Fire surpassed it Thursday.
Cameron Peak and East Troublesome are about 10 miles apart.
“There’s certainly the potential” for the two fires to come together “given the alignment of some of the drainages and wind patterns that may occur,” East Troublesome Fire incident commander Noel Livingston said in a Thursday evening update.
But it’s not likely, he said.
The 275 square-mile Mullen Fire is also burning partly in Colorado, though most of it is in Wyoming.
One of the drivers of the unprecedented late wildfire season is the drought gripping the state. Colorado has been unusually dry since spring. Coupled with the vast majority of 5,300 square miles of lodgepole and ponderosa killed by the mountain pine beetle in the past few decades, there's a lot of fuel for wildfires.
The Cameron Peak, East Troublesome and CalWood fires (about 10 miles from Boulder) have displaced thousands of Coloradans. The American Red Cross is currently serving an estimated 2,000 evacuees.