Having a hard time sleeping tonight, due to the wildfires now inside the town I grew up in.

Pretty much the entire area I lived, learned, worked, and played in as a child into my young adult years is at risk or already on fire. The situation looked okay when the fire started last Saturday afternoon, and over the next few days. At about 4pm Tuesday, the conditions took a drastic turn for the worse, with 65 mph gusts blowing the fire past 2 lines of containment and into the city. 32,000 people have been evacuated at this point.

Wow, scary. Texas?

Colorado.

tanstaafl.

Oops, forgot the location. The photo above, and the fire I'm tracking is in Colorado Springs.

Fire map showing each days progression.

Thankfully so far no one has been seriously injured with this, and the firefighters are even finding time to assist with the wildlife in the area.

Good progress yesterday. Some potential for bad weather, but it never materialized into increasing the threat like Tuesday the 26th.

A nephew of mine is out there in Colorado Springs. Fires were a few hundred yards from their home. They were packed and ready for a couple days while they waited for the evacuation command.
Still haven't heard the news on that...

It's looking much better at this point. 15% containment, and no major growth yesterday. Concerns at this point are around the water supply for the city, as the fire is right at the banks of one of the major reservoir.

They did lose 347 houses when it rushed into the city on Tuesday. This broke the record for the state, set only weeks earlier in the northern Colorado fire. It's been a real ugly fire season already. Looking at a high quality overhead image, the fire didn't burn down any of the houses I've known people to live in. The place I stayed for Christmas last year was only 200 yards away from where the fire stopped though.

Pretty much good progress to report. Containment is up to 55%, and no major expansion has occurred, even with two days of red flag warnings again this weekend. Only about 3,000 people out of their homes, down from the peak of about 40,000.

Very good news. I was surprised to learn that 15,000 to 20,000 federal firefighters have no health insurance coverage. This is a travesty considering the personal risk these people are putting themselves in to protect us when these fires happen. Here's a petition to sign to try to bring some attention to the situation.

Nice followup by the Denver post on the events during Tuesday the 26th:
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_21081160/remembering-worst-day-waldo-canyon-fire

Obama has the ball rolling on healthcare for the seasonal firefightere: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/11/us-usa-obama-firefighters-idUSBRE86A03Q20120711 .

And a good video from the Colorado Springs Fire Department on what they (and many fire departments from other cities helping) faced that night.