Major wildfire situation around Rocky Mountain National Park


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Posted by Ballpark Frank (64.79.35.96) on 10:37:29 10/22/20

For the benefit of anyone who might be interested, but is not seeing this in whatever news source they access, all hell has been breaking loose on the periphery of Rocky Mountain National Park, and now the park is closed due to the East Troublesome Fire having entered the southwest corner of the park. The town of Grand Lake has been evacuated, as well as Columbine Lake and residential areas west of the road that runs south to Granby. Yesterday, the fire grew over 100,000 acres in one day, and traveled over 20 miles, thanks to very high winds. It appears that the fire has already crossed the road that runs north from the West Entrance to Trail Ridge Road, in the general vicinity of the Green Mountain, North Inlet, and Tonahutu trails. Beetle killed trees have been the principal fuel for this and other fires burning in northern Colorado.

The Cameron Peak Fire has been burning along the northern edge of the park for weeks, and threatened Estes Park last weekend. The CalWood Fire is newer, but has burned a number of homes south of Hwy 7 just southeast of the park. The Lefthand Canyon Fire is even newer, a bit further southeast, but is approaching 50% containment.

There are several more days of wicked fire weather, with low humidity and high winds, forecast for the area, before cooler, wet weather moves in on Sunday.

At present, the situation around Granby and Grand Lake is a mass of confusion, due to how fast and how large the East Troublesome Fire grew on Wednesday. With all the other fire activity in Colorado and other western states, there is a severe shortage of personnel to throw at this monster. After spending an hour or two researching the situation, I have discovered that the media is not a very credible source of up to date information. Inciweb.org is halfway decent if there has been a recent update. The best sources are Forest Service, National Park Service, Grand County Emergency Management, and the fire's Facebook page.

Ballpark




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