Thousands Evacuated as Colorado Wildfires Close in on Tourist Destinations
- Posted on June 24, 2012 at 5:36pm by
Erica Ritz
- Print »
- Email »
(Photo: AP/Darrell Spangler)
(The Blaze/AP) — Wildfires moved in on some of Colorado’s most popular summer tourist destinations over the weekend, demolishing nearly two dozen homes near Rocky Mountain National Park and emptying hotels and campgrounds at the base of Pikes Peak.
A wildfire near Colorado Springs erupted and grew out of control to more than 3 square miles early Sunday, prompting the evacuation of more than 11,000 residents and an unknown number of tourists. On Saturday, a blaze destroyed 21 structures near the mountain community of Estes Park, where many visitors stay while visiting the park.
All of this came just a week before the Fourth of July, a key time for family vacations to national parks and other destinations. A statewide ban on open campfires and private fireworks has been in place for more than a week.
With Colorado midway through its worst wildfire season in a decade, travelers have seen some of their favorite sites closed to the public, obscured by smoke and haze.
“We’re used to flooding and tornadoes, nothing like this,” said Amanda Rice of Rock Falls, Ill., who evacuated a Manitou Springs hotel late Saturday with her husband, four children and dog. Some travelers were awoken with evacuation orders. Rice, scared when she saw flames, took her family to the evacuation center before she was told to go.
“It was just this god-awful orange glow. It was surreal. It honestly looked like hell was opening up,” Rice said Sunday.
(Photo: AP/Bryan Oller)
Plumes of gray and white smoke poured from the mountains Sunday, obscuring at times Pikes Peak, the most-summited high-elevation mountain in the nation and inspiration for the song “America The Beautiful.” Winds were pushing smoke away from Colorado Springs, but residents and tourists watched nervously as haze wrapped around the peak.
Families planning whitewater rafting trips or visits to the stunning red-rock formations in Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs were instead spending their vacations passing out bottled water and setting up cots in evacuee centers.
They included Mark Stein of Morristown, N.J., whose family arrived after midnight Sunday at their Manitou Springs hotel for a week of whitewater rafting and sightseeing.
“We were sleeping for 15 minutes when they started knocking on the door – a day from hell,” Stein said of the day of travel. With his wife and two sons, Stein spent the first night of his vacation setting up cots for more than 200 evacuees who slept at the school.
“I think it’s the best vacation ever. This is what the real world is about. There’s a lot of people that need help,” Stein said.
Also Sunday, a brushfire that began near Elbert, about 50 miles southwest of Denver, quickly spread to about 60 acres, forcing the evacuation of about 100 residents.
(Photo: AP/Bryan Oller)
Half the nation’s firefighting fleet is now battling fires in Colorado, said Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. He said C-130 military transport planes from Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs would begin assisting on Monday.
With eight wildfires burning, including a fire that has scorched more than 118 square miles and destroyed at least 191 homes near Fort Collins, Colorado is having its worst wildfire season in a decade.
“People recognize this is going to take a big push” to extinguish, Hickenlooper said Sunday from a Colorado Springs grocery store, where volunteers were passing out burritos, sandwiches and drinks to 350 firefighters working near Pikes Peak.
The wildfire near Rocky Mountain National Park destroyed vacation cabins and closed the most commonly used entrance to the park. Clouds of smoke blew toward the 102-year-old Stanley Hotel that inspired Stephen King to write “The Shining.”
(Photo: AP/Bryan Oller)
Carolyn Baty and her husband, Darrell, vacationing from Fort Worth, Texas, were evacuated from their cabin Saturday afternoon.
“I smelled smoke coming from both directions, and then I heard the knock on the door,” Darrell Baty told The Denver Post.
A fire burning near Fort Collins has scorched more than 118 square miles, destroying at least 191 homes. Though some evacuees were allowed home Sunday, that blaze has become among the largest and most expensive in Colorado history.
Popular Stories
Paper Details Obama Admin’s Alleged Secret Note Sent to Iran: If Israel Attacks, We Won’t Get Involved 587 Comments
‘Made Up Religion’: TV Historian Enrages Muslims, Receives Threats After Producing UK Documentary Questioning Islam’s Beginnings 414 Comments
This Is the Creationists‘ Response to Scientist Bill Nye’s Viral Pro-Evolution Video Claiming They Harm Children 414 Comments
President Obama Issues Major ‘Green Energy’ Executive Order 378 Comments
Roseanne Barr: Most Billionaires ‘Violent Pedophiles’ & ‘Heartless’ Cocaine Addicts 375 Comments
Faith
- This Is the Creationists‘ Response to Scientist Bill Nye’s Viral Pro-Evolution Video Claiming They Harm Children 414 Comments
Pakistani Muslim Cleric Accused of Framing Disabled Christian Girl in Koran-Burning Case Read More- ‘Made Up Religion’: TV Historian Enrages Muslims, Receives Threats After Producing UK Documentary Questioning Islam’s Beginnings 414 Comments
Meet the Controversial German Imam Accused of Brutally Beating His Wife & Pushing Sharia Law Read More
‘Self-Proclaimed Messiah’ & Unification Church Leader the Rev. Sun Myung Moon Has Died — Here’s His Life Story Read More
Business
- President Obama Issues Major ‘Green Energy’ Executive Order 378 Comments
- Germany’s Upcoming Court Ruling Will be Huge for the EU Read More
Ford Looks to Beat Toyota for Best-Selling Car in 2012 With This Model 151 Comments
Bernanke & QE3: Here’s What You Need to Know Read More- ‘Extortion’: Why Did the Labor Department ‘Drop the Hammer’ on Oregon Farmers? 303 Comments
Technology
- This Is the Creationists‘ Response to Scientist Bill Nye’s Viral Pro-Evolution Video Claiming They Harm Children 414 Comments
‘TaserDrone’: Hackers Weaponize Quadcopter With Actual ‘Shocking’ Technology Read More
Ever Heard of the Wild ‘Burning Man’ Festival in the Middle of the Nev. Desert? Here’s Your Primer Read More
Stanford Develops Technology ‘Better Than Steroids’ for Athlete Recovery Read More
Have You Pretended to Know What ‘the Cloud’ Is? You’re Not Alone Read More
Submitting your tip... please wait!
Comments (67)
junior1971
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 8:50pmFox news interview suggesting it is all caused from people shooting guns at targets causing sparks to fly and resulting in wildfires. People, You must look for yourselves and see!!! I will try to post a link..
Report Post »COFemale
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 8:56pmUnconfirmed, but news agencies in Colorado indicate arsonist is lighting the fires. We had no rain or thunderstorms threats until today. The High Park is the only one attributed to lightning.
Report Post »SerikFox
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 9:20pmI seriously doubt that; I target shoot (and live in CO actually) and only the most unlikely of scenarios would cause that. You would have to work at it to start a fire.
Report Post »Birgitte
Posted on June 25, 2012 at 2:25amI’m here in Colorado and there was one fire up near Lake George that the news reported people saw someone shooting at a propane tank which exploded and they got in a pickup truck and drove away. The story has not been confirmed.
They do think that a serial arsonist is setting multiple fires in the Woodland Park area, he has not yet been caught. News has said that the sheriff has asked people to keep an eye out for the arsonist. It’s pretty scary here right now, record temperatures and no rain in sight. Windy as hell most days as well. God help us all.
Report Post »qzak491
Posted on June 25, 2012 at 10:49amThis might be the work of terrorists. It’s cheap, effective, and anyone can do it. Where’s homeland security on this.
Report Post »servant100
Posted on June 25, 2012 at 1:58pmNot the problem champs. Worked for the PPACG in CSprings during the late 1970′s. We knew those knife edge ridges west of the Garden of the Gods and all along the Front Range to and through Denver etc were firestorms waiting to happen. Being in PPACG I was right next to the City of Colo Springs Planning department. I watched City Planners there rewrite the zoning codes, insert special provisions, quit, and exploit these provisions as real estate developers to build expensive homes on 15-30 percent slopes with “that increadible view”…knowing the whole time that that chaparall would be tinder dry and the 10-15 percent sloped gravel access roads would be impossible for fire trucks to negotiate, particularly during the winter ice. I saw these jerks make their millions and exit, leaving us fools to pay the piper later on.
This was made worse by the Forest Service environmental nuts policy of not cleaning deadwood leaving a standing firebomb there.
So we have reaped what we have sewn. The natural burn cycle is about 20-30 years for the old timber to burn off those mountains and resprout and renew. The problem is that we let those jerk developers build all those houses in that high risk burn zone….just like those fools in California.
You reap what you sew…as St Forrest said…”Stupid is as Stupid does…” Enjoy the disaster you so richly diserve Colorado… Maybe this time you will not rebuild in stupid places…
Report Post »junior1971
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 8:46pmhttp://townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/2012/06/20/how_obama_bureaucrats_fueled_western_wildfires. I am computer illeterate. I don’t know how to make it all red and stuff. Copy paste and see!!!!
Report Post »Ted Zeppelin
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 7:51pmWhile Democrats and Muslims.. oh, same group you say? While Democrats pray for socilaism democracy and sharaih law, Republicans pray for the preservation of our Republic, the Constitution. and sufficient rain for Colorado, New Mexico and the west.
Report Post »LB
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 7:31pmSince Colorado turned Democratic I felt like I was living in hell. Now I guess the flames are the proof. How about some shovel ready jobs to build and supply more fire fighting equipment Hickenlooper. Cut some union benefits and get the job done.
Report Post »Dirty Harry
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 7:24pmThe Blaze,
Please take down some photos or ads. Your site has become far too slow to load. I find myself going back to Drudge to get my news due to the slowness of this site.
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 7:56pm@Dirty Harry
Use Mozilla Firefox and install Ghostery for Firefox. (Ghostery doesn’t fully work in Internet Explorer).
Firefox is faster than Internet Explorer also.
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
http://www.ghostery.com/download
Set the Ghostery bubble from 15 seconds to 0 or 1 second in options and make sure blocking is enabled.
All the pop-ups will go away.
Also, to refresh a page faster (to see new posts), under “comments” change the “Order by” from “Newest to Oldest” to “Oldest to Newest” and then back again.
Report Post »UNIX_Techie
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 10:34pmIf you are using Internet Exploder then that may be your problem. Even Drudge was a pain to load because IE would not let me scroll down the page while it was getting the links an pictures and what not. I use Firefox now and it loads the page faster plus it lets me scroll down while it is still loading the page.
Report Post »Birgitte
Posted on June 25, 2012 at 2:26am@ TheMonk THANK YOU! That add on helped me a bunch!!
Report Post »TRONINTHEMORNING
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:51pmMy home is about 10-12 miles away from the flames; many ridges and foothills/mountains keep us safe but many are not; pray for all concerned. Rain would be great. This fire would have been contained yesterday had the law prevented us from using Federal equipment.
Report Post »Fubared
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 8:22pm“This fire would have been contained yesterday had the law prevented us from using Federal equipment.”
Report Post »What? How does that work?
COFemale
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 8:46pmAll the commercial/local resources have to be maxed out first before we get authorization to use federal resources. We got federal authorization a couple hours ago. 2 tankers from Peterson AFB and 2 Canadian tankers loaned to U.S. will help tomorrow.
Report Post »Captain Morgan
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 8:50pmLook up the economy act of 1932, it is also the reason FEMA can’t fly on national guard aircraft, and in 2008 San Diego burned within sight of hundreds of marine corps and navy aircraft that could have been used to fight the fire. The economy act states “civilian usage of or carriage on DOD equipment cannot occur until all commercial assets are exhausted.” blame FDR
Report Post »copatriots
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 9:11pmThoughts & prayers to all affected by the fires! Spent the day doing even more mitigation to the house and updated the emergency plan.
It’s way too dry for this early in the season.
Report Post »Want our country back
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:35pmFrom Michelle Malkins site June 20: Today she and her family are among the 11,000 that are evacuated.
http://michellemalkin.com/2012/06/20/how-obama-bureaucrats-fueled-western-wildfires/
The Obama administration’s neglect of the federal government’s aerial tanker fleet raises acrid questions about its core public safety priorities. Bipartisan complaints goaded the White House into signing a Band-Aid fix last week. But it smacks more of election-year gesture politics: Too little, too late, too fake.
Ten years ago, the feds had a fleet of 44 firefighting planes. Today, the number is down to nine for the entire country. Last summer, Obama’s U.S. Forest Service canceled a key federal contract with Sacramento-based Aero Union just as last season’s wildfires were raging. Aero Union had supplied eight vital air tankers to Washington’s dwindling aerial firefighting fleet. Two weeks later, the company closed down, and 60 employees lost their jobs. Aero Union had been a leader in the business for a half-century.
We will keep you all in our prayers.
Report Post »dontbotherme
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:34pmGod help all of the people affected by these fires. Hey, Lord? Please give them rain….
Report Post »TelepromoterNChief
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 7:41pmDoes your god read these boards?
Report Post »qpwillie
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 8:03pm@TelepromoterNChief
Report Post »He used to but he stopped when the Paulbots came here. He can’t stand hanging around where they are.
Individualism
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 8:37pmgod doesn’t exist dumb redneck.
Report Post »rickc34
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 8:49pmTo all atheist on tthis site …what’s up with all the hate? You have your believe and we Christians have ours and when we all die we shall see who is right and who is wrong okay. But cool the hate speech it makes you look like an idiot. If you can’t go troll some place else. Thank you
Report Post »BrownWaterVet
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:27pmSince Monday there have been 20 arson fires in the mountains just west of Colorado Springs. Don’t know the cause of this one yet. Around 1,600 homes and 11,000 people evacuated in the area.
Semper Fortis
Report Post »MeteoricLimbo
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:27pmTrees are a renewable natural resource. Use them or lose them. Doesn’t that smoke kill penguins? Imagine the carbon tax Barry and his minions could latch onto. What a bunch of clowns.
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:57pmHahhaha…Try to cut down a tree in Colorado….They willl throw you under the jail! LOL The nuttiest people on the planet outside of california..
Report Post »copatriots
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 9:21pmNot true, BADDOGGY. We get tree cutting permits anytime we want. Pine beetles are killing thousands of acres of trees all over western Colorado. Dead trees are a huge problem and the dry conditions worsen the threat of wildfires. The trees are like huge matchsticks.
Report Post »SerikFox
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 9:24pmBaddoggy, people from CO are perfectly fine and sane. Problem is, people from CA keep moving here. Mostly to CO Springs, and to Boulder (our state’s version of “San Francisco”).
Report Post »Zundfolge
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:24pmGlenn often laments that our society is going to hell in a handbasket and how awful people are to one another.
He needs to spend more time watching how the people of Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs and the Ute Pass have come together to help each other during this crisis.
Report Post »Want our country back
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 7:13pmGlenn ALWAYS applauds how American’s come together in time of need…. he always says, remember how we all were after 9/11.
Unfortunately, we’re not always nice to one another in a day to day situation, just look at that school bus monitor a few days ago. She was abused by the kids on the bus…. America came together and helped her. We are ALWAYS GOOD in time of need.,
Report Post »gingirl67
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:21pmNine aircraft now fighting the fire, along with about 450 firefighters on the ground. #waldocanyonfire
Report Post »gingirl67
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:20pmUpdated numbers on evacuations: 1,600 homes and 3,000 people in El Paso County with an estimated value of nearly $300 million on the homes. /Nathan
Report Post »gingirl67
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:18pmcant even see the mountains from my home.. its all hazy .. so much smoke.. please pray for the fire fighters.. please pray for the ppl that have been evacuated.. We have no rain in the forecast.. and the temps are HIGH today
Report Post »Vickie Dhaene
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:25pmSending prayers your way. Hoping all stay safe.
Report Post »momrules
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:27pmAm praying Gingirl……….for all of you and will continue to do so. Stay safe.
Report Post »gingirl67
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:17pmhttp://www.kktv.com/news/wildfires
Report Post »gingirl67
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:16pmCongressman Doug Lamborn says, 8 Fires are burning in Colorado right now. MAFFS are expected to step in tomorrow… ar
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:10pmObama should be laughing with glee to watch all of those ‘honkies’ loosing their homes.
Report Post »TelepromoterNChief
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 7:43pmColorado is still a toss up.
Report Post »He might not want to laugh too hard unless he doesn’t mind another referendum against him.
Nicholson William R
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:08pmThey said it looked like hell was opening up and also made mention of “The Shining ” movie with Jack Nicholson . Have any appearances been made recently , in this area , by either Jack or the puppet in chief ? Inquiring minds want to know ……….
Report Post »MBA
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:21pmAs a matter of fact, the disrespectful unAmerican in chief was in Denver to campaign recently after giving the commencement address at the Air Force Academy where he took off in “his” helicopter during graduation so that the grads and their families had to wait for the fly over for the dumb *ss to clear the air space. Although why Colorado should be punished for obamy’s bad behavior (unless it’s their liberal penchant to vote for this clown) is a mystery. Oh well, sorry to the families who lost everything–as long as you and your families are safe–hold steady.
Report Post »momrules
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:04pmI know there is no way of knowing what started this fire although the authorities seem to be able to always pinpoint a smoker, a camp fire or in one case someone target shooting but I think it interesting that Al Qqada suggested starting wildfires in America as one of their weapons against us.
This link is just one of many on the subject.
shttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2138758/Unleash-Hell-New-Al-Qaeda-magazine-describes-start-huge-forest-fires-U-S-instructions-make-ember-bombs.html
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:08pmyes…you are right.
Report Post »shogun459
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:14pmMany in the state were started by lightening. Large protions of the state have received NO rain since winter.
Report Post »showmerancher
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 8:25pmThe initial claims were that all of these fires were started by lighting… but then people started realizing that there hadn’t been lightning in more and more of these areas. Now the Colorado Governor admits that at least a dozen of their fires have been set by arsonists, and “he can’t understand the type of people that would do this”… he needs to read that article.
Coincidentally, and despite the fact that there had been only 11 drone attacks done in the preceding six months, two weeks after the article and the fires started, Obama went on a spate of 8 drone missions killing a reported 27 including the #2 guy. Coincidence??? Or retaliation?
Now Utah says that 20 of its fires were not lightning, but rather people shooting guns… OK, possible I suppose, especially if they might be using tracers. But 20 fires from just that cause? Quite a coincidence.
Also a coincidence that having such a siege on this administration’s watch would not bode well, especially before elections, and especially since I’m not sure they would know how to stop this, which may of itself cause a bit of concern among some folks.
Is it or isn’t it? Funny that no one (in government) is addressing this, especially in light of such a highly unlikely string of “coincidences”. I guess we’ll never know…
Report Post »rickc34
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 8:56pmHey mom-there was some suggestion that the fires in Arizona and Texas were started by smugglers last year. They may be working with terrorist groups. The States coffers are empty and cannot afford the fires or storm damage so I guess Obama is going to have to beg for funds or raise everyones taxes..but I guess that will happen when he refuses to extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone.
Report Post »AxelPhantom
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:01pmHaving gone through the fires in Texas last year, my prayers and thoughts to the people in Colorado.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:01pmThis would be a Good Time for Elections… with all the California Liberals out of town!
Report Post »Tri-ox
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:01pmMichelle Malkin has an interesting post about the Colorado wildfires:
‘How Obama Bureaucrats Fueled Western Wildfires’
http://michellemalkin.com/2012/06/20/how-obama-bureaucrats-fueled-western-wildfires/
Report Post »cjherin
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 6:30pmMichelle Malkin said on Twitter that she and her family had to evacuate. Prayers for her, her family and all that are affected by these fires.
Report Post »gingirl67
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 5:57pmits awful.. u can smell smoke even in colorado springs.. i cant even be outside cause of it
Report Post »gingirl67
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 5:54pmhttp://www.kktv.com/video/live
Report Post »Elena2010
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 5:48pmLord have mercy!
Report Post »