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Boulder Colorado Wildfire

You can’t miss the latest news in Boulder Colorado – the three windblown wildfires that destroyed at least four structures and caused the call to evacuate more than 11,000 homes.  The largest fire, which started on Wednesday around 1:00 pm, actually jumped a major road, Interstate 36 and entered the Lake Valley Estates neighborhood, where police went from house to house warning people.  Boulder is not a stranger to wildfires but it is unusual to witness them this time of year.  Extending across the foothills, threatening Dakota Ridge Village, the fire spread up to 3,700 acres.  Get more details on this midwinter grass fire.

Authorities said more than 11,000 homes had been alerted to the fire by reverse 911 calls, but about 1,300 homes were actually evacuated.  Red Cross confirms that the emergency shelter took in 100 people while the rest found safety with friends and relatives.  Now contained, it has been confirmed that the fire was out by Friday with 20 firefighters monitoring the site overnight to suppress flare-ups.  Amazingly, no injuries were reported except a fireman who sprained a knee.  The two of four structures involved are reported to be a barn and a home just west of the small town of Niwot about 25 miles north of Denver.  

While there were no injuries, it is sad to report that even while neighbors helped Bobra Goldsmith, 78, round up more than 160 llamas and alpacas on her Rocky Mountain Llamas ranch, the retired University of Colorado French and music professor lost her house in the fire. ”My mother was an artist,” Goldsmith told the Camera newspaper. “The house was filled with her work. I can’t tell you what I’ve lost.  Because this is a semi-rural area, housing many horse and livestock ranches, large animals were evacuated to a shelter and when that completely filled, animals were sent to Boulder County Fairgrounds.  Flames licked the shoulders of one road as cars and pickups rolled by, some towing livestock trailers.  ”It’s really terrifying”, says Pamela Taylor of nearby Louisville, who was trying to find out whether her horse had been moved from a boarding stable.  It was a very surreal image as you looked straight west into the mountains that Wednesday evening.  The hills were sprinkled with orange spots and several lines of burning fire indicating the hundreds of little fires that were spread by the fierce wind that day.  The cause of the fire is said to be a downed power transformer, then the force of the 80 mph wind, just swept it away quicker than imaginable.  News4 explains that the cause of the fire is under investigation, though officials believed wind gusts reaching 80 mph likely downed power lines. Utility company Xcel Energy said 2,500 customers briefly lost power in the Denver metro area that includes Boulder because of high winds.   Residents can still see the effects of the damage as they look west to the mountains.  The charred remnants can be seen for miles as a reminder of our surprising midwinter fire.

Tags: Tags: boulder colorado wildfires, Dakota Ridge Village, denver, firefighters, lake valley estates, Niwot

This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 8:09 pm and is filed under Boulder Subdivisions and Neighborhoods, Dakota Ridge Village, Focus on Boulder. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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