It Has Been a Long Week....

Horses run as wind blows smoke into the pasture

A wall of dark smoke looms large over the horizon

A house is fully engulfed with flames in the midst of the Black Forest Fire

DC-10 slurry bomber fights the Black Forest Fire

A car and house are completely destroyed from the Black Forest

Sgt. Marketha Flintroy of the 193rd MP Battalion stands watch

Black Forest Fire evacuees Larry and Deborah Bowin, Rev. Jimmy Lilley, volunteers, and 8 foster children are praying at the parking of Walmart in Colorado Springs.

I got a chuckle this morning when I heard one of the Colorado weather forecasters feeling the need to explain 'relative humidity'. You can take the Girl out of the City....hmmmm. The Black Forest fire was very scary. I say 'was', with caution, as it has not been 100% contained as of this hour. (The 6:15PM press conference marked the fire @ 55% containment). The loss of 2 lives, 478 homes turned to complete ash, 7000 more still being assessed, close to 3000, untouched. We are a mere 7 miles SW of the Black Forest. Last year, when the Waldo Canyon fire was taking place, I was still relatively new to living in Colorado, and did not understand the terrain, the wide open space here makes 20 miles away look much closer. Waldo Canyon was 20 miles away. I get that now. I remember so clearly saying to Jimmy, can you even imagine if the Black Forest ever caught on fire, we are so close. Now, we know much more than ever expected about raging mountain and forest fires. One thing we did learn was that an ember of fire can be carried pretty far by the wind, and upon landing can easily start or spread another fire. This fire was blowing North by gusty gusty winds, hence, moving the fire and the embers away from us. There are many sub-divisions all around the Black Forest area, and the homes on the West side of the fire were evacuated. We were next in line, had the fire moved any further south. We are grateful and heartbroken at the same time. We know many who were evacuated on Tuesday and are still not back in their homes. We know people who have lost everything. The needs are staggering at this point.

Sheriff Terry Maketa has been the main spokesman for the fire. He said, in all of his years of navigating fires, he has never seen such a quick response from every level of government. The National Guard was deployed along with the C-130's dropping the 'slurry' red retardant, the helicopters dropping massive amounts of water, the fire departments from many counties outside of El Paso were here. Over 750 courageous men and women are still here working to extinguish the hot spots. The fire risk is still so high because of the serious drought. So, we are keeping our guard UP, we are giving thanks for all the support and prayers from near and far. Social media has been a blessing for me, especially on Thursday, when everything was enormously tense. So, thank you to my Friends for sticking with me, and letting me post with abandon.

These pics were taken by photographers from the Denver Post. Jimmy, Edward and Crew, were out and about on Wednesday, distributing food and offering support. They were photographed and wound up on the front page of the Post on Thursday!!!

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!!