The second day of the Fourmile Fire as it's now called has yielded more concrete information about the scope of the fire. The initial scramble to evacuate people in front of the flames has settled down the longer term effort to contain and eventually control the blaze. As of 6PM the fire was being managed by a Type 1 National Incident Management Team. That's as good as it gets. Local and State resources have been exhausted. What's known at the end of the second day after the jump.
Boulder Sheriff's Department Radio Live and Fire Departments via scanner
Daily Camera Newspaper
Officials were able to estimate the scope of the fire by 9Am, they now think roughly 11 square miles were burning then. Mid day they were able to confirm more than 60 houses burnt, but they were only able to look at roughly half the area burning. About 1000 homes and 3000 residents have been evacuated mostly to houses of friends or hotels. There are no known casualties. The cause was due to a vehicular accident with a propane tank.
There are seven slurry bombers available but they were unable to fly for most of the day due to a temperature inversion keeping the smoke low and making visibility difficult. Lack of much wind and lower temperatures seem to have slowed the fire more than anything. Fire officials report the fire is zero percent contained as of Tuesday evening.
Last evening late I listened to the scanner again and heard sheriff's department people leaving the fire to go home, and then this morning early I heard them reporting as they resumed duties checking houses and manning road blocks. They sounded tired. Many firefighters had been working nonstop 36 hours until this evening.
I drove down to Denver today and I could see the smoke from the burn rising very high into the atmosphere.
The worst fire in Boulder County for over 50 years.
I've no doubt this fire will burn for days and many houses more will be lost, the longer an area goes without burning the more apt it is to burn long and hot. A rain storm would be nice.