Update 6/13 6:22pm
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo — A voracious wildfire driven in all directions by shifting winds has killed two people and destroyed at least 360 homes — a number that was likely to climb as the most destructive blaze in Colorado history burned for a third day through miles of tinder-dry woods, a sheriff said Thursday.
The destruction northeast of Colorado Springs has surpassed last June’s Waldo Canyon fire, which burned 347 homes, killed two people and caused $353 million in insurance claims just 15 miles to the southwest. The heavy losses were blamed in part on explosive population growth in areas with historically high fire risk.
“I never in my wildest dreams imagined we’d be dealing a year later with a very similar circumstance,” said El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa, who drew audible gasps as he announced the number of homes lost to the blaze in Black Forest. The fire was 5 percent contained.
Maketa said one person who was reported missing Wednesday was found safe, but crews on Thursday found the remains of two other people who appeared to be trying to flee. The victims were found in a garage in Black Forest. “The car doors were open as if they were loading or grabbing last-minute things,” Maketa said.
Earlier in the day, residents were ordered to leave 1,000 homes in Colorado Springs. Thursday’s evacuation was the first within the city limits. About 38,000 other people living across roughly 70 square miles were already under orders to get out.
Colorado’s second-largest city, with a population of 430,000, also asked residents of 2,000 more homes to be ready to evacuate. The streets became gridlocked with hundreds of cars while emergency vehicles raced by on shoulders.
Gene Schwarz, 72, said he had never fully unpacked after last year’s fires. He and his neighbors wondered whether open space grassland to the north of them could be a barrier from the flames.
“It doesn’t matter because a spark can fly over from anywhere,” said Schwarz.
Hot, gusty winds fanned the 24-square-mile wildfire, sending it into new areas and back into places that had previously been spared. Even investigators sent in to determine the cause of the fire were pulled out for safety reasons.
The Red Cross said more than 800 people stayed at shelters.
Black Forest, where the blaze began, offers a case study in the challenges of tamping down wildfires in Colorado and across the West, especially with growing populations, rising temperatures and a historic drought.
Developers describe Black Forest as the largest contiguous stretch of ponderosa pine in the United States — a thick, wide carpet of vegetation rolling down from the Rampart Range that thins out to the high grasslands of Colorado’s eastern plains. Once home to rural towns and summer cabins, it is now dotted with million-dollar homes and gated communities — the result of the state’s population boom over the past two decades.
El Paso County, its economy driven largely by military and defense spending, saw double-digit growth in the last decade and is now Colorado’s largest county, with more than 637,000 people.
“There’s so many more people living here in the last 30 years, you couldn’t believe it,” said Bruce Buksar, who’s lived in Black Forest since 1981.
Untold thousands of homes in Colorado’s heavily populated Front Range are at risk for fires, said Gregory Simon, an assistant professor of geography who studies urban wildfires at the University of Colorado-Denver. Many are built on windy mountain roads or cul-de-sacs — appealing to homebuyers seeking privacy but often hampering efforts to stamp out fire. Residents in the outdoor-loving state are also attracted by the ability to hike from their backyards and have horses.
“Unfortunately, these environments give the appearance of being peaceful, tranquil and bucolic and natural. But they belie the reality that they are combustible, volatile and at times dangerous,” Simon said.
Nigel Thompson was drawn to Black Forest by the rural feel, privacy, lack of crime and space to raise a family.
“A safe place for my kids to grow up, lots of room for them to run around,” said Thompson, a computer programmer who moved to a house on a 60-acre lot in 1997.
Five years later, he took in evacuees from a devastating fire in the foothills to the northwest. That drove home the fact that his family was living in a tinderbox. Thompson cut down 20 pine trees to form a firebreak around his house, which he topped with fire retardant roof tiles. He diligently cleared away brush, downed branches and pine cones, like many here do in community cleanups every spring.
“It didn’t make a damn difference at the end of the day,” Thompson said Thursday. His home was incinerated Tuesday.
“If you’re surrounded by people who haven’t done anything, it doesn’t matter what you do,” Thompson said. “It’s interesting that you can have a house in a forest and the building code doesn’t say anything about the roof design.”
That’s what makes fire prevention so difficult, said Anne Walker of the Western Governors’ Association.
“Local government has ultimate authority over where homes are placed,” she said. “You need to look at local ordinances and where homes are placed and what they’re made of.”
El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn said the commission has tried to ensure that new developments have brush clearance and easy emergency access.
“Sometimes it’s just nature,” he said. “When you have a fire like this in a semi-arid environment, there’s not a lot you can do.”
Maketa said firefighters were hampered by a matted layer of pine needles and grass fuel on the forest floor — fuel called “duff.” Spot fires below the trees can smolder for days and even weeks inside it, then blow up. Firefighters see dry matting, Maketa said, “and when you look 10 minutes later, it’s full of flames.”
The military pitched in, manning roadblocks with Humvees, providing firefighters, plowing fire lines with bulldozers and flying two C-130 cargo planes and several helicopters to drop slurry and water. The aid came from nearby Fort Carson, the Air Force Academy, Peterson Air Force Base, Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Buckley Air Force Base and the Colorado National Guard.
Other fires burned in Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon and California.
In Canon City, 50 miles southwest of Black Forest, the 5-square-mile Royal Gorge Fire was 20 percent contained. Royal Gorge Bridge & Park officials said that of its 52 buildings, 48 are now gone. The park’s suspension bridge 955 feet above the Arkansas River is still up, though the fire damaged some wooden planks. An aerial tram was destroyed. Park officials vowed to reopen.
A lightning-sparked fire in Rocky Mountain National Park was burning on about 300 acres, less than originally estimated.
BLACK FOREST — Portions of Colorado Springs, including some densely populated subdivisions, are now under mandatory evacuation orders for the Black Forest fire.
The city said the boundaries for the new evacuation are: North: North Gate and Old North Gate Road; South: Flying Horse Club Drive (to include homes south of Flying Horse Club Drive on Barossa Valley Road and Veneto Way)/Vine Cliff Heights/Equinox Drive/Serenity Peak Drive; East: Highway 83; West: Voyager Parkway.
At the same time the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office enlarged its mandatory evacuation area. The new boundaries: West: Sunhills Drive and Granby Road; North: Baptist Road including Fox Run Park; South: Old North Gate.
The sheriff’s office advised people to move to the west and avoid Highway 83. Authorities said the flames had not yet crossed Highway 83,but they said winds were blowing smoke in that direction and they were worried about the possibility of spot fires.
A mandatory evacuation “means you are in immediate danger. Load your family and pets, and GO NOW,” thesheriff’s office said via Twitter.
The Red Cross is opening a shelter at the recreation center at the University of Colorado Springs campus, 1420 Austin Bluffs Pkwy.
This is the second time Thursday that the fire’s boundaries were increased.
Colorado Springs Police Chief Pete Carey said the mandatory evacuations affected an additional 1,020 homes.
The fire has now destroyed at least 360 homes and consumed 15,000 acres, El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said at a news conference early Thursday. The list of homes that has been evaluated has been posted onlineand is updated whenever possible.
Its footprint is approaching 70 square miles.
The evacuation area includes 94,000 acres and 13,000 homes as of Thursday morning. Some 38,000 people have been evacuated.
“Those numbers are pretty staggering,” Maketa said.
No injuries to residents or firefighters have been reported, although Maketa noted that there were reports of people who refused to evacuate. One person reported to be missing was found Thursday morning.
The fire was first reported Tuesday about 1 p.m. No cause has been established and there is no containment.
No wildfire in Colorado history has destroyed more homes. The Waldo Canyon fire west of Colorado
Springs in 2012 destroyed 347 homes.
Fire officials are working to get an accurate count on homes destroyed within the zone, but active fire and changing wind directions make the job fluid.
Maketa stressed that the evaluation of structures is ongoing. “Home assessments can change in 10 minutes,” he said. “We are trying to keep it as accurate as possible.
“Homes we knew were standing (Wednesday), I personally witnessed going down last night,” Maketa said.
The evacuation zone for the Black Forest fire was expanded early Thursday morning because of “dynamic changing conditions,” the sheriff’s office said.
Overnight, sheriff’s deputies went door-to-door in the expanded evacuation area.
The zone now
The evacuation area extends from Black Forest north into Elbert County. Some areas of Colorado Springs to the south are under a pre-evacuation notice.
Palmer Ridge High School has been designated an evacuation center; New Life Church, which was an evacuation center, is no longer being used because of heavy smoke. Large animals are being accepted at the El Paso County Fairgrounds, Elbert County Fairgrounds and Adams County Fairgrounds.
Maketa praised firefighters for their efforts battling the blaze the past three days, in extreme conditions and through heavily timbered areas.
“We did see a lot of losses, especially with the wind,” Maketa said.
Firefighters have also saved countless homes, Maketa said, and they’ve kept the fire from moving north into Elbert County.
“Those victories didn’t come by accident,” Maketa said. “It’s lots of hard work by dedicated firefighters.”
On Thursday, crews — aided by multiple air support units — will continue efforts to gain control of the fire. A Type I Incident Management team officially took command of operations at 6 a.m.
Fire crews will continue to monitor the southeast area of the fire — where some of the first evacuation orders took place — where extreme heats and spot fire continue to create problems, Maketa said.
There is no citizen access at checkpoints Thursday because of the fire activity.
In the northeast portion of the fire, crews will work to keep the fire contained to El Paso County and prevent a potentially fast-moving grass fire.
Several helicopters with buckets continued to churn through the heavy air Thursday. Small plumes of black and white smoke were billowing on the horizon.
Maketa answered questions from several residents, many of whom were still waiting for news about their homes.
Barbara Schmidt has seen photos of her garage, but not her home. She broke down in tears as she described the destruction of her neighbors’ homes.
“It’s very frustrating,” Schmidt said. “You just don’t know. Is it there? Is it not there?”
Schmidt was comforted by Kristien and Jaenette Coy. The couple met Schmidt at one of the Red Cross shelters. The two said their home was one of the first to burn on Tuesday.
“It’s better than not knowing,” Jaenette Coy said. “Now we can begin the process.”
The two had just five minutes to evacuate their home. They could see the fire burning as they grabbed their computer and a baby album.
Fire investigators have been back into the area where the fire first flared up looking for clues to the origin, but they were chased out when the blaze changed directions and swept back into the same area, Maketa said.
Fire officials believe the fire is not a threat to traffic on nearby Interstate 25, but that could change, depending on winds, smoke and possible massive evacuations.
“I’ll cross my fingers and say I don’t see that (I-25) as a concern at this time,” Maketa said, noting that the highway was shut down during the Waldo Canyon fire.
Wednesday afternoon Gov. John Hickenlooper signed an executive order declaring a disaster emergency for the fire, “ordering $5.5 million from the Disaster Emergency Fund to pay for the fire suppression, response and recovery effort related to the fire since its inception,” his office said in a news release.
The entire fire zone is within a red flag fire warning area posted Thursday by the National Weather Service.
The weather service warning, which starts at 11 a.m. and runs through 7 p.m., is prompted by gusty winds, low humidity, and dry fuels.
Winds this afternoon are expected to gust up to 35 mph and humidity levels will struggle to get out of single digits. Isolated thunderstorms with lightning are expected early Thursday afternoon, the weather service reports.
“Wind is our number one threat. It has been the game changer,” Maketa said Thursday morning. Firefighters are bracing for the prospect of continuing winds over the next few days.
Also hampering efforts are the substantial amount of fuels on the forest floor.
A combination of matting pine needles, pine combs and grasses, known as “duff,” acts like a blanket over pockets of fire, hiding the flames until a wind roars through, breathing new life into fire that had been hidden and smoldering.
Maketa said firefighters can look at an area and see nothing, and 10 minutes later it’s alive with flames that emerge from the duff at the commands of the wind.
“There’s a gust of wind and then raging flames,” Maketa said. “We are see that all over.”
Firefighters may have to deal with extreme fire behavior Thursday, the weather service warns.
The weather forecast Thursday for the Black Forest area includes a 10 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1 p.m., with a high temperature of 83 degrees.