Tagged: Waldo Canyon Fire

The number of wildfires in Colorado has exploded during the past decade. So has the number of people living in high-risk fire zones.

And public policies for dealing with both actually risk making the state’s fire danger even worse, an I-News Network investigation found.

In the past two decades, a quarter million people have moved into Colorado’s red zones – the parts of the state at risk for the most dangerous wildfires. Today, one of every four Colorado homes is in a red zone.

While the Waldo Canyon Fire exploded again in Colorado Springs Tuesday, firefighters in Boulder also had their hands full with a new wildfire that forced mandatory evacuations for homes on Flagstaff Mountain. 

When NASA’s Aqua satellite looks down on Colorado, it can tell without too much trouble that this is indeed a bad year for wildfires.

As Tropical Storm Debby slowly douses the southeast of the country, Colorado continues to be the polar opposite in terms of weather. Several days of hot temperatures & dry conditions have helped fuel several fires across the state.

In Colorado, high temperatures and extremely low humidity are feeding destructive wildfires, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents from endangered areas that include popular tourist sites. According to The Denver Post, the Waldo Canyon fire "has burned 3,446 acres and remains zero percent contained."

Fires are also raging in Utah, where the AP reports that "hundreds of residents evacuated ahead of a 39-square-mile blaze."