from Hacker News

Wind whipped fires raging through Boulder County

by dalrympm on 12/30/21, 11:09 PM with 74 comments

  • by goopthink on 12/31/21, 2:37 AM

    I live in the neighborhood, but we are just outside of the evacuation zone. This part of Colorado is — in other times — a really nice mixed-use set of communities. It has a lot of open fields, farms, businesses, and “old town” town centers right alongside very dense apartment buildings and single family homes. We haven’t had snow or rain in almost two months, and everything is very dry. I saw the wind bringing flames along these open fields (like kindling) right into Louisville and Superior, and then it lights up the neighborhood, spreading house to house, fueled by wind that has brought down trees and power lines (friends in Boulder getting some rolling blackouts earlier). These nice parks and open fields are like turbo boosts from neighborhood to neighborhood. Any other combination - not as dry, not as windy, and it would have been a small localized fire. Everyone is packing their cars even if outside of the mandatory or pre-evacuation zones. We are supposed to have a massive snowstorm tomorrow morning as well, which makes this very painful - large fires normally burn in loosely populated areas, but this is as dense as any major suburban center.

  • by kleinsch on 12/31/21, 4:37 AM

    My house probably burned, we’ll find out in the morning. Family is safe, got out in time and we have a place to stay, so blessed in that regard.

    We just moved from the Bay Area last year. This isn’t an area in the wilderness, it’s suburbia. This would be like if 600 homes on the edge of Fremont or San Jose burned.

    Freak situation where we haven’t had rain in 3 months, winds were super high, temps were high for Dec, and it sounds like power lines went down. Unreal.

  • by justinator on 12/31/21, 2:11 AM

    I don’t believe danger is imminent but it is incredible how close this fire is to the former Rocky Flats.

    This is the second time in as many years I’ve been surprised to see fires close enough to be viewed from the front yard - in exact opposite directions.

    I’m at the N Boulder rec center with my partner (a reporter) covering this for the NYT. Thankfully it seems quiet and the wind is dying down.

    Pray for snow!

  • by alexose on 12/31/21, 5:42 AM

    Sounds like the same thing that happened in Santa Rosa in 2017 and Talent in 2020: Drought, wind, downed power lines. I live near Talent, and while I didn't lose my home it was one of the worst things I've ever lived through.

    If anyone from this area wants to talk, I'm game. Email's in my profile.

  • by Sparkle-san on 12/31/21, 2:07 AM

    I'm from this area and still live close enough that I can see the smoke. We have been experiencing a drought, seeing temperatures reaching almost 70 in December, and broke the record this year for latest first snow fall. These fires started in the late morning possibly from a downed power line and by the early afternoon had spread rapidly. Hundreds of structures including entire subdivisions have burned to the ground without hours. If you're feeling generous, please consider making a donation at the link below.

    https://www.commfound.org/grants/get-grant/Boulder-County-Wi...

  • by jcampbell1 on 12/31/21, 3:12 AM

    Here is a photo of the current situation from central boulder. The 100mph wind gusts caused the fire to jump dozens of times.

    https://postimg.cc/CzdZ7Bqq

  • by gizmo385 on 12/31/21, 1:43 AM

    Per the government briefing a couple hours ago, over 500 structures (which are mostly homes) have burned down. That number is likely higher now. Absolutely devastating.

  • by Scaevolus on 12/31/21, 3:20 AM

    I had the pleasure of evacuating twice from this fire (Superior, then Broomfield).

    80mph+ wind gusts are crazy, and it's impossible to contain the fire until the wind dies down.

  • by dmckeon on 12/31/21, 3:48 AM

    Driven by high winds into dense housing - those elements remind me of a 2017 fire that burned over 2,500 homes in Santa Rosa, California: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubbs_Fire

  • by pengaru on 12/31/21, 4:50 AM

  • by jkaptur on 12/31/21, 4:53 AM

    I evacuated from Superior today and am grateful to be safe. It’s amazing how quickly the situation developed.

    If you’re reading this, I’d encourage you to look around and think about what you’d take and where you’d go if you had to leave right now.

  • by throwaway984393 on 12/31/21, 3:41 AM

    I'm wondering if fire-prone areas should be zoned to require fireproof building. No more wood homes/roofs. Europe generally doesn't use wood home construction, so doesn't seem crazy

  • by fblp on 12/31/21, 7:16 AM

    So many of the fires in California have also been started by downed electrical lines.

    Although this is tragic, tech to help manage fires is coming along and states can raise their standards to encourage private companies to manage risk.

    This has happened in Victoria, Australia: https://spectrum.ieee.org/how-an-australian-state-faced-deva...

  • by robomartin on 12/31/21, 6:03 PM

    This is horrible. I hope everyone is OK. Homes can be rebuilt. Life is what matters.

    About three years ago I had to do a bunch of research on fire resistant construction for a project. I came across something that is fantastic. Part of me doesn't understand why this isn't a requirement in fire-prone areas, if not every home and building.

    This is the product we used, of course, there are other manufacturers.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVWVP3tKlZc

    No affiliation at all other than being a customer. Yes, we conducted our own tests before making the decision.

    It won't resist flames forever, but it absolutely delays the maximal burn event. In addition to this, it provides a potentially significant delay of the spread from structure to structure, particularly if the gap between structures is reasonable (say, 10 ft or more).

    In speaking to LA County permit authorities I learned that one of the problems using advanced technology is that the bureaucracy of the system gets in the way. It's truly sad. The way the engineers put it to me translates to: If we don't have a checkbox, you can't use it. Seriously.

    The only way to use it is for YOU to foot the bill and pay to conduct all the tests required to add the product to the approved materials list. This process, again, due to the bureaucracy, could take years. And, BTW, much as is the case with a lot of things in the US, obtaining approval in one county does not automatically allow someone to use it outside that county. Sometimes I think the US is a bunch of independent little kingdoms, much more so than a country.

    In our case we could not obtain approval because the material was not on the list. We provided tons of proof, even getting the CEO's of various intumescent coating companies involved. The approvals are very weird, for example, a product might be approved for outdoor use and not approved for indoor applications. No, not because it won't work or is toxic. More often than not it is because the tests were not conducted for that particular application and you are out of luck. You might be approved to paint your walls with this stuff but are not allowed to coat your framing, rafters, etc. with it. Crazy.

    We ended-up working around these barriers because this was a DoD project. They simply pulled rank and that was that.

  • by dredmorbius on 12/31/21, 11:33 AM

    Boulder Colorado Emergency Operations Centre ArcGIS fire evacuation zones map:

    https://bouldercounty.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/inde...

  • by mooreds on 12/31/21, 8:02 PM

    Belatedly, here's a stream of updates from the Boulder County Office of Emergency Management: https://www.boulderoem.com/emergency-status/

  • by pm90 on 12/31/21, 2:17 AM

    Is this due to the unusually warm winter?

  • by sounds on 12/31/21, 6:41 AM

    This really hits home for me, this is not a brushfire in a wilderness. It's moving fast, too!

  • by deft on 12/31/21, 2:07 AM

    This is terrifying, the wind is letting the fire jump huge gaps.

  • by medntech on 12/31/21, 4:03 AM

    Part of the medical evacuation. This is bad.

  • by tamaharbor on 12/31/21, 5:09 AM

    Mother Nature sucks on occasion.