'Life threatening' Colorado wildfires trigger evacuations in Boulder area

[Jilly_in_VA]

Multiple wildfires fueled by strong winds have triggered evacuation orders Thursday in Boulder County, Colorado.

The National Weather Service for Denver and Boulder called the situation "life threatening" and urged residents of Superior and Louisville, cities about 8 miles southeast of Boulder, to "LEAVE NOW." Officials issued evacuation orders for both communities by Thursday afternoon.

The weather service said the fires were “becoming a very high impact wind event for our area” and urged people to “take it seriously and abide by any evacuation orders from local authorities.”

NBC affiliate KUSA of Denver reported that the strong winds brought down power lines which sparked several grass fires in the area. The sheriff's office said in a tweet that it has received multiple reports of downed power lines and transformers blowing.

Crews were responding to the fires, the sheriff's office said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/life-threatening-colorado-wildfires-trigger-evacuations-boulder-area-rcna10475

[Budi]

1. High winds speed was approx 90 - 100 mph

The land is so dry.
There is a winter storm approaching & bringing snow, & it can't get to that country fast enough.
This is devastating

[El Supremo]

2. I've been watching all the local networks for hours. This bad.

Many homes have burned. There is no good prognosis until the wind dies down - maybe later tonight. The damn wind is preventing firefighters' water from going on the structures. The governor has declared a disaster and called out the National Guard.

[orwell]

3. Good thing none of these problems...

...are due to climate change or we might have to ... uh ... do something about it.

Just your usual 100 mph winds in winter over dry, tinderbox land. Business as usual... right?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. Oh, my. I just now learned of this.

I used to live in that area, first in Golden and then in Boulder 1987-1990. Right now it looks as if the city of Boulder itself isn't burning, but lots of other places are.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. Here's a link to the local Fox station in Denver,

which is doing an excellent job and is live streaming: https://kdvr.com/

Just click on the live link.

Fox News, the network version, is totally dreadful. But I long ago learned that local Fox stations tend to do a good job of covering breaking news, which is the only time I watch them. And they typically go to streaming live coverage, which many other stations do not.

[Jilly_in_VA]

6. This all reminds me

of the Gatlinburg fires in east Tennessee in 2016. A real nightmare for me as my daughter lives about 45 miles from there. Her husband does cell tower maintenance and repair and was one of the first people allowed up in there; had to have special clearance from the governor, carried a letter and everything.

And for y'all in the east, the racing jet stream and high winds are headed your way. Be careful. We've had a wetter than usual year in Virginia but I saw a brush fire in Page County when we were up there Wednesday.

[CrispyQ]

7. The drone video is heartbreaking! This is just down the street from me.