The Black Forest Fire, and Then Some...

It was bound to happen. Extreme drought, humidity in the single digits, high winds, temps in the high 90's. Yesterday was a perfect storm, if you will for a fire. We were already in the red zone for a high 'fire alert'. It was about 2:30 in the afternoon. Some friends were visiting and I glanced out back, and there it was, the black plume of smoke. Oh no. Where was it coming from? Sadly, the Black Forest, which I talked about just last week, on June 2, was on fire. What I did not say on the post, was how fearful I felt in general, knowing how bone dry everything is right now. My thought was, that for all the tea in China, this is a place, beautiful as it is, where I would never want to live. It happened so fast. The pics I took yesterday were just over a couple of hours and you can see the progression of the smoke plume. I have assured my Family and Friends, that we are fine, and really, we are fine.

We learned last night, and even now as I type, with a press conference going on, about 80 homes have been lost and they expect the count to go up as the day goes. Today, the helicopters have arrived, and we will see some aerial shots as the day moves. The fire is 0% contained as of this minute and 8,000 acres of the Forest are effected. The winds are going to be erratic today and the fear is that by this afternoon, the winds will double back and blow the fire into itself, which is not good. Resources have come from all over the West. There are 4 fires burning in Colorado right now, so Southern Colorado is in a real emergency situation. Lessons were learned from the Waldo Canyon fire last year, but each fire has its own personality as Mother Nature blows through. 

Please, pray for Colorado!!