Danger, Fire

You've probably heard the sad news that Boulder County suffered two raging fires on December 30th, this coming only three days after a mass shooting in Denver killed five people. It's been a rough few days on us Coloradoans. Over 900 structures burned in Boulder County, most of them homes, and as I type this the remains of one person have been found while another person is still classified as missing. The destruction was breathtakingly quick, all too reminiscent of the Waldo Canyon Fire in 2012 and the Black Forest Fire in 2013, collectively destroying about 857 homes here in our own city. Thus far it's been a dry, dry, dry winter and the winds have been insane. The threat of fire has us all on edge, even those of us who live in the middle of the city.

Devastating flash flood in Manitou Springs

Photo by Michael Ciaglo, the Gazette.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know how much I love Manitou Springs, the little town adjacent to Colorado Springs' west side. Manitou experienced a devastating flash flood on Friday evening. I was stranded at my photography studio in the Old North End around 5:30pm by a violent thunderstorm, and it was more than half an hour before the storm let up enough for me to make a dash for my car. Unfortunately, just a little to the southwest of me, Manitou was having it far worse. Manitou basically sits at the bottom of Ute Pass -- the foothills of Pikes Peak. Because of the enormous scorched area in the foothills left by the Waldo Canyon fire last June, there is no vegetation to prevent a massive flood if Mother Nature were to dump a large storm on us. And dump she did. All that water and all that ash quickly turned into a violent flash flood, completely overrunning Fountain Creek with churning black sludge in a matter of minutes. Anyone and anything in its path was doomed. The photo above, taken yesterday morning, gives you an idea of the aftermath. I'll link to a couple more images below (all from the Gazette.com), and if you want to see more, click HERE. As far as I know, there is one confirmed death and three people have been reported missing. It's tragic.

Photo by Michael Ciaglo, the Gazette.

Photo by Michael Ciaglo, the Gazette.  This photo was clearly taken from right in front of the historic Cliff House, where I shoot many weddings. This is very upsetting.

And for a truly terrifying look at what it's like to be caught in a flood like this, watch this video: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=198131633688835&set=o.147277778656245&type=2&theater  This was shot just up the street from my friend Lorelei's house. Lorelei reported today that her basement is literally full of mud, almost to the ceiling, and there is a giant tree lying uprooted in her front yard.


I have many friends in Manitou. Everyone is devastated, but they are rallying together to clean up and put things back to normal. Yesterday, hordes of volunteers came together and shoveled mud for hours. So much progress was made, it was very heartening for us all. I'd like to share my friend Noel's Facebook update from yesterday afternoon. He had spent all day helping to dig our beloved, historic Manitou Penny Arcade out from under tons of mud. Here is what he had to say:

I just got home from shoveling mud with about 400 other fellow Manitoids/Manitou lovers who made their way down to Adams and the Penny Arcade. I stayed three hours, but there were people who'd been there since well before dawn. I shoveled next to a big guy with a back brace in obvious pain who confessed he'd had 3 backsurgeries and was on morphine. He handed out water when he couldn't handle the pain any more. We moved arcade rides and games and shoveled the muck that had collected beneath them into a mountain range in the center of the walkways so the front loader could drive in and scoop it up. By about noon, there were so many people with shovels that people came with wheelbarrows because the front loader couldn't keep up. Alan, the owner of the Penny Arcade showed up, looked me in the eye and said: "I told you I didn't need your help!" He's my favorite curmudgeon. When Ursen was a little boy we'd stand around complaining about anything and everything while he slipped quarters into Ursen's hands. He'd always talk about how he was going to shut the arcade down. When I saw him last night and the arcade and boardwalk were covered in mud he looked particularly despondent as he swept sludge out the horse race room (always my favorite!). "Living the dream," he said. Then he leaned on the broom and said, "Maybe I'll just shut it down for the summer." I've heard these threats from Alan a dozen times, but I wouldn't have been surprised if he was serious this time, and maybe he is.

I shoveled with an ex-military covered in patriotic tattoos—an American flag with stripes that turned into bombs at the end and a "Valhalla" on his left chest; I shoveled with counsellors from Summit ministries, hippies, next-door neighbors, co-workers, city councilperson and Pikes Peak marathoner Matt Carpenter (who said, by the way, that short of putting in a dam at The Narrows in Williams Canyon, that this is probably the new normal). No one really seemed to need to be told what to do. There weren't any "leaders" that I could discern other than someone occasionally calling out for more shovels in one place or another. Some people brought food around, tuna on crackers, sandwiches. I ran into Chuck Murphy who owns the Spa Building. He was in a button up shirt and khakis splattered with mud. "Only in Manitou," he said, looking around at the dozens of volunteers sweeping mud off the patio of Adams into the creek. While I don't agree that Manitou has some special corner on community spirit, I was particularly taken with how many people had anarchically self-organized. People had just shown up and everyone worked together without a lot of talking or direction and no one was trying to be a hero.


I saw Farley at Adams. She seemed stalwart, bolstered by the myriad volunteers. Apparently, a neighbor who'd arrived early told me, people had left the restaurant in such a hurry when the flood sirens went off last night that there were still unfinished meals and drinks on the tables this morning.


As I was leaving, almost all the mud had been removed from the arcade. I ran into Mike, the manager, and told him to tell Alan I said goodbye. He said that Alan had been so moved by all the volunteers that he couldn't speak.


I am not surprised at how quickly our community came together in this crisis. We saw the same spirit last year during the Waldo Canyon fire, and again only a few weeks ago when the Black Forest fire destroyed over 500 homes on the east side of our city. We have had it rough here the last couple of years, but we are resilient.

My heart is aching for all the damage done to all the many little restaurants, bars, hotels and shops that I've known and loved in Manitou over the years, some of them owned by friends of mine. I couldn't get to sleep last night. Seeing the photos and videos on the news, and reading all the shocked and devastated Facebook updates from my many friends who live in Manitou Springs... it was so upsetting. It has proven to me more than ever how much my heart is tied to the Pikes Peak region and my city.

Black Forest fire: the aftermath

Photo: The Colorado Springs Gazette

 

I haven't blogged in days. I have been avoiding it. There are a few reasons for this. I had a very big, very fabulous wedding to shoot at the Grant-Humphreys Mansion in Denver on Friday. On Saturday I stayed home and spent the entire day fretting helplessly about the Black Forest fire raging on the northeast side of Colorado Springs. On Sunday, Pat and I went to the funny car/drag races at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, which effectively kept our minds off the fire. Monday I cleaned my house from top to bottom, doing my best to avoid any news of the fire.  Today is Tuesday and I am happy to report that it's now at least 75% contained, due I'm sure in part to the rainstorms that traveled back and forth over our city all day long yesterday.  Thank you, Mother Nature!

But I'm afraid that's probably the only good news I have to write about today. Because the Black Forest fire has officially claimed 502 homes and killed two people over the course of three or four days.  It is the most destructive fire in Colorado history, and it came almost exactly one year after the Waldo Canyon fire, which dramatically torched nearly 350 homes and killed two people in a matter of hours on the northwest side of our beautiful city, in a neighborhood called Mountain Shadows.  The Black Forest fire is different in that the homes there are generally spread farther apart, on acreage rather than average-sized lots.  So for the fire to consume over 500 homes means that it covered a lot of ground.  As you can imagine, a neighborhood called "black forest" must be a beautiful place to live. And it is.  Lots of pine trees and woodlands, some very nice homes; horses, llamas, cattle ranches.  I absolutely dread the thought of driving through there now, because it wasn't just a lot of homes with nice landscaping that were destroyed like the Waldo Canyon fire -- it's a forest that happened to have homes in it.  It's going to be very, very sad to see what has become of it.  It's not going to take years for those trees to grow back. It's going to take generations.  And so many animals have been displaced that for days now my Facebook feed has been one post after another about someone's horse(s) being lost, or some random horse or cow or alpaca or dog or cat being found, with accompanying pictures.  I hope all of these frightened animals will soon be reunited with their owners.

I'm sure I speak for all Colorado Springs residents when I say this: THANK YOU, FIREFIGHTERS AND NATIONAL GUARD!  I cannot praise you enough for all of your brave efforts to save lives, homes and property.  You are our heroes.  I am in awe of what you do. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

There is a very good video HERE that shows a fire crew defending a house in Black Forest; you should watch it if you have four or five spare minutes.  Below, I've posted a few more images of the fire, all but one of them from the Colorado Springs Gazette's website and captured by their talented photographers.

And finally, if you would like to help the victims of the Black Forest fire, you can make a monetary donation at www.careandshare.org (indicate that the donation is for "fire response") or text "donate" to 41010 to make a $10 donation, which will be added to your phone bill.  Volunteers can register at www.careandshare.org/GetInvolved/Volunteer.aspx. (Info excerpted from the Gazette.)

 Black Forest residents put up a sign thanking first responders on Shoup Road in Black Forest, Monday June, 17, 2013. Carol Lawrence, The Gazette.

 

 

Firefighters line up to cross a field putting out hot spots in an area off Hodgen Road in the northern part of the burn area in Black Forest, Monday, June, 17, 2013. The Black Forest fire was estimated at 75 percent containment by mid-day. Carol Lawrence, The Gazette.

 

 

A deer lies in ash near the ruins of a home on Brentwood Drive in Black Forest, Monday, June, 17, 2013. Most of the homes on Brentwood Drive were burned down. Carol Lawrence, The Gazette.

 

 

A street sign at Brentwood Dr. and Black Forest Road is damaged by the intense heat from the Black Forest fire. Carol Lawrence, The Gazette.

 

A firefighter flags the remains of a home on Brentwood Drive, Monday, June, 17, 2013. The property must be flagged three times for a complete assessment. Carol Lawrence, The Gazette.

These last photos break my heart into a million tiny pieces. I can't even look at them without crying.  I'm afraid this is what the majority of Black Forest will look like for the foreseeable future:

 

 

Timber blackened from the Black Forest fire line Wild Oak Drive on Monday June, 17, 2013. Carol Lawrence, The Gazette.

 

 

Capture from Denver's Channel 7 News aerial video.

 

Colorado Springs is burning... again

 

Photo taken from Flying W Ranch Road in Mountain Shadows in west Colorado Springs. By Victoria Young.

 

 

 Photo taken from 8th Street in Colorado Springs. By Lee Bowers.

 

 

By Bernadette Hair

 

 

El Paso County Sheriff's Deputy Dan Cukowski helps evacuee Linda Davies walk her livestock out from the evacuated area during the Black Forest Fire on Tuesday, June 11, 2013. (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette)

 

 

Most of the time I pre-blog my posts -- that is, I sit down when I have time and write up several days' worth of blog posts, then schedule them to go "live" one after the other. This way I don't fall too behind on the blog, and it's especially helpful during wedding and portrait season when I'm swamped.

This is why today's post just featured a pretty picture of the Garden of the Gods. I actually blogged it days ago.  But the current situation in Colorado Springs is actually not very pretty at all, so now I'm making another, real time post. Yesterday, a fire broke out in a wooded part of town called Black Forest, and because of very dry and windy conditions, 80 to 100 homes have been lost in the last 24 hours. The evacuation zone is expanding. So far I can count one friend who's lost her home; without doubt there are more, but it's too soon to tell.

Many of the people in this part of town have horses and other livestock.  This afternoon is equally dry, and windier than yesterday.  Please send your healing thoughts and prayers to the people of Colorado Springs today. We are going through an exact repeat of what happened last June with the Waldo Canyon fire. It's unthinkable.

If you're interested, our local paper, the Gazette, is making continuous updates here:  http://gazette.com/live-updates-sheriff-terry-maketa-says-80-to-100-homes-burned-fears-fatalities-in-the-black-forest-fire-north-of-colorado-springs/article/1502210  Aerial photos of the blaze can be found here:  http://photos.denverpost.com/2013/06/12/photos-aerial-photos-of-the-black-forest-fire/#4