Our Fair City

Those of you who  have been following the news have probably heard by now that there's a major fire burning just west of  Colorado Springs. Yesterday the fire jumped both the primary and secondary containment lines and now is burning in the northwest suburbs. News reports claim that about thirty-five houses have been engulfed. Mandatory evacuation orders affect something like 20,000 residents.

Kris and I have a houseguest who is very worried that he won't have a home anymore.

The countryside west of town is the foothills of the Rocky Mountain frontrange. It's rugged country, ridges and canyons, much favored by hikers and apparently by one arsonist or careless smoker. There hasn't been a significant fire there in at least a generation, so there's a large fuel load of living and dead trees and undergrowth. A series of comparatively mild winters has encouraged population growth  among bark beetles which burrow into conifers, killing the trees but leaving them still standing. We've had only about nineteen percent of our normal precipitation this year.

All of this has created a situation that was ripe for a catastrophic fire, and now we have one. Bad as the present fire is, however, we cannot discount the prospect that there will be more fires in days to come. Each day without rain, and with record high  temperatures makes it just that much more likely that someone else will drop a glowing cigarette, foolishly shoot off fireworks, or just start a fire to see what will happen.

Worst of all from our perspective, our son, daughter-in-law and baby granddaughter have airplane reservations to fly here Sunday for a short visit. Now we'll have to advise them that there's smoke in the air, and they might decide to postpone their trip rather than risk a respiratory problem for little Violet. It would be prudent for them to stay in North Carolina, but Lord, we'd really love to see them.

(Latest newscast, being aired while I type, says 32,000 evacuees now. That's a little more than five percent of the total population of metropolitan Colo Spgs.)

For those of you whose houses are not in danger of burning - everyone who reads this, I hope - spare us a thought and some sympathy today.