My brother and his wife moved away from Ft. Collins last fall. During my Christmas visit with them a couple years ago, they gave us a driving tour of the Horsetooth area. Gord mentioned that when they first moved to FC they were looking at acreages in that area. Like Meadowlark they lived on the E side of the resovoir.

Well, the good news is, the smoke has cleared up somewhat this morning. The bad news is, it's cleared up because the wind has increased due to an oncoming front.

We're now at 52,000+ acres and the fire has jumped the Poudre River: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_20861901/high-park-fire-jumps-poudre-river-80-homes

The article reports that they're air dropping ping-pong balls filled with flammable chemicals to fight the fire; I've never heard of this technique before...

This method is quite common, especially where the terrain is dificult and or where the fire is unpredictable due to winds etc which also poses a significant risk to fire fighting ground crews.

I've converted my ThreatCon Checklist into a FireCon Checklist. Please remember that I have NO experience in this type of situation and have listed those things that have come to my mind. Please make use of this if you can and repost any new list that you make with it for the rest of us to benefit from.

FireCon Checklist
Updated 29Aug10

5=Set at the beginning of Fire Season.
4=Fire(s) have started within your state or in a nearby state.
3=Fire(s) have started within your county.
2=Winds are forecasted to shift to an unfavorable direction
1=Local authorities are expected to issue an Evacuation Order for your area; Fire is approaching your area.


FireCon 5: Upon setting FireCon 5:

1) Have a “Family Plan” of what to do and where and how to meet in the event of an incident. Insure all family members are thoroughly briefed.
2) Ensure that basic supplies are kept at home for a minimum of 72 hours (3 days) sustenance/maintenance.
3) Know where the other family members are, when not at home.
4) Keep vehicle gas tanks at least half full.
5)

FireCon 4: Upon setting FireCon 4:

1) Ensure that basic supplies are kept at home for a minimum of 6 days sustenance/maintenance.
2) Know where the other family members are, when not at home.
3) Insure that 72 hour BoB’s are ready and readily accessible.
4) Maintain the “normal“ ear to local news broadcasts.
5) As opportunities occur, maintain contact with neighbors to share information.
6)

FireCon 3: Upon setting FireCon 3

1) Establish a “Rendezvous Point“ for family members, in case of separation.
2) Top off vehicle fuel tanks.
3) Load BoB‘s in vehicles.
4) Maintain a close watch on local news broadcasts.
5) Establish alternative communications system with extended family members.
6) Know where family members are and evaluate any destinations that family members wish to go to.
7)


FireCon 2: Upon setting FireCon 2:

1) Call Family Members home. Know everybody’s whereabouts.
2) Keep fuel tanks in vehicles above the ¾ full level.
3) Decision Time: When to leave and where to proceed.
4)


FireCon 1: Upon setting FireCon 1:

1) Execute Bug Out Plan.
2)

I live in SOCAL and have gone through a few of these without having to evacuate. However, my personal wildfire checklist is similar to wildman800's except it is more streamlined. His looks like a very good list for starts. My list is more like, FireCon 5: accept that fires can happen outside Fire Season so keep everything up-to-date. After that I begin with wildman800's item 3=Fire(s) have started within your county; I would add "and there is fuel to sustain the fire between where the fire is now and where you are" or words to that effect. Wind moves a fire, but it still needs fuel. Fires here almost always start in the east and move west. The winds may die down at night but it is almost always the east-west, hot, dry Santa Ana winds pushing the flames so wind direction is only critical when the fire is so close you can hear it -- by that time you are way into FireCon 1 and should be gone.

Anyway, when there is a fire loose to the east we go to item 3; I pack the truck (way more than "kits") and prepare to evacuate. It's critical to not wait until the smoke is invading your nostrils because packing to evacuate while on a tight time-line is not beneficial to packing what you need to save. You pack what you can grab and you will miss a lot.

That's the way my truck was when they gave the (fortunately) optional evacuation notice for the last largish fire. Just north of here the evacuation was not optional. Some of my neighbors took the opportunity to go on vacation so the children and pets weren't in the area. I stayed around as the neighborhood watch in a relatively quiet neighborhood. It was a good sign when the fireman down the street came home to take a break.

To summarize, I go from almost always in FireCon 5, to FireCon 3; I've come close to FireCon 1, but fortunately I live in the wrong ravine/canyon so have never gotten there.

Good list, Wildman. Just some additions off the top of my head.

Some FireCon 5 things I might add are:

• Check local wildfire plans. E.g. when I lived in Irvine, CA, the city had its own low power AM radio station for emergency broadcasts with possibly more pertinent info for residents. And certain neighborhoods there actually have a priority on shelter-in-place rather than evacuating, due to more modern, fire resistant building requirements and landscaping.
• Perform brush clearance and any other landscaping/maintenance tasks that local fire codes call for. Small but critical things like clearing dried leaves from rain gutters. Try and encourage your neighbors to do likewise.
• Check your insurance coverage, update any photos/inventory of your possessions for insurance purposes.
• Make any necessary copies of new, important documents and add them to your archive, whether a fire-resistant safe at home, a safety deposit box, another person's home, etc.
• Also update any new info that you need to take with you, e.g. you switched insurance carriers and new contact info for them
• Change filters on air conditioner and any room air filters, especially if you have household members with respiratory issues like asthma or emphysema

For FireCon3, I might add:

• Load BOB into vehicle and park with nose facing OUT, towards street
• If you have pets, check on availability of pet-friendly evacuation shelters or find other arrangements ahead of time
• Check your planned escape routes for any new impediments or bottlenecks that you might not be aware of, such as road repairs/construction, that may make them unsuitable for a mass evac. However, if there are official evacuation routes, use those. Other roads may be closed or restricted to official vehicles during an actual evac.

FirCon2 might also include:

• Consider applying fire resistant foam or other chemcials to exterior of house. Others may start watering down exterior of home but be aware that if everyone does that, you may be depriving fire fighters of critical water main pressure, especially in a hilly area. Some insurance companies will send a specialist to spray foam on your home for you.
• Move flammable outdoor items indoors. Drop water resistant furniture into your pool.

If you live in an area that is prone to having wildfires consider permanent removal of brush and flammable "stuff" near your home. with 5' of our house it is only gravel, tile or concrete.

The roof is stone coated steel.

My understanding of the ping pong balls is that they put in two chemicals that when mixed start to burn. They drop these where they want to remove fuel in front of the main fire. This strengthens the dug fire lines and denies the main fire of anything to burn so they can gain control. Its fighting fire with fire.

Correct, "ping pong balls" are just one of many potential sources of ignition for a backfire (or, for fuel management, prescribed burns). The chemical reaction is just potassium permanganate and antifreeze - it's not really a ping pong ball, it's a thick plastic sphere that contains a CC or two of KNO3. They're mechanically injected with antifreeze (or injected manually by bored hotshots just sitting around the station, who then toss the hot potato around) and it produces enough heat to ignite the plastic sphere.

Google "plastic sphere dispenser."

Wow, thanks for all the helpful input, everyone. This is why I like to visit here.


The fire is up to 45% containment now; that said, we're supposed to get temps upwards of 95F and 25+mph winds today:

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/c..._medium=twitter

Here's some first-hand reports regarding the evacuation:

http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_20874776/inside-powder-keg-local-fire-crews-talk-about#