Hello all --

Article: http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/c...ar-fort-collins


Still lurking, but thought I'd mention some things that I'd not thought of in terms of wildfire, but are affecting myself and friends/family at the moment.


1) Our watershed is going to be fairly contaminated. Already one source of water, the Poudre river, has had its power knocked out, and the mountain reservoirs are going to get silted up so it may overload treatment plants. http://www.coloradoan.com/viewart/201206...s-water-quality

2) Communications. Many towers are on ridges in the foothills. One radio station, KUNC, lost power on Sunday and several cell towers are threatened: http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/06/10/high-park-fire-continues-to-grow-1-confirmed-missing/

3) Possibility of evacuation orders being miss-communicated or overlooked. One person lost their life, possibly due to being in a cabin on their property instead of in the main house that had reverse 911. http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/31181910/detail.html Many summer cabins do not have phones at all.

4) Smoke. It's quite thick and traveling much further than one would suspect. It's a very large fire, and people with asthma or other conditions are wearing bandanas and face masks. It's causing headaches and other problems even for people who aren't normally over-sensitive to smoke, because it's been several days' worth.

5) The danger of long hikes into the backcountry. Two of us were hiking just south of this fire when it first occurred, and we didn't know the scope of it until we'd returned to town. Several other hikers were in its path and narrowly escaped: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/31178399/detail.html


There's more I'd like to add, but I have to go for now. Feel free to add more info about this situation, or add links to other places on the forum that discuss large wildfires.