There are three major wildfires and seven minor wildfires currently burning in Colorado. I’m classifying major vs minor primarily based on proximity to cities and large-scale damage. I’m not going to post pictures here; there are a million on the Denver Post and Colorado Springs Gazette websites and available on Twitter at the respective hashtags.
The Flagstaff fire (#FlagstaffFire) is currently burning on one of the mountains that overlooks the city of Boulder. The Flagstaff fire was started by lightning in a dry thunderstorm. Firefighters managed to contain the fire before it spread to the neighborhoods to the west of the fire, and have cleared firebreaks to prevent it from moving into Boulder. Assuming no freak weather occurrences like what happened in Waldo Canyon, the city should be safe despite the fire reaching within a mile and a half of city limits. If the fire does manage to come down the mountain, the National Center for Atmospheric Research is in its path. The fire has burned somewhere between 230 and 300 acres, depending on where you get your news, and is 30% contained.
The High Park fire (#HighParkFire) has taken a back seat in the news recently due to the more dramatic fires in Boulder and Colorado Springs. The High Park Fire is believed to have been started by lightning. It has burned over 87,000 acres (that’s over 135 square miles) but isn’t threatening much in the way of homes and businesses. Containment is at 75%.
The Waldo Canyon fire (#WaldoCanyonFire) is the fire you’re seeing on the news and on Michelle Malkin’s blog. The fire is starting to burn neighborhoods in Colorado Springs and is approaching the Garden of the Gods and the Air Force Academy. The Waldo Canyon fire wouldn’t be nearly as serious as it is if it weren’t for the winds; Tuesday the winds kicked up to 65 MPH and blew the fire across the two firebreaks that were protecting the city. The fire is at 18,500 acres with containment at 5%.
The Waldo Canyon fire is believed to have been caused by arson. There are a couple of interesting things about this. One is a Craigslist post by someone claiming to have seen the arsonist and claiming that calls to the tipline are not being returned. Another is the question of whether the arsons (both in Colorado Springs and in neighboring Teller County) are related to terrorism. The FBI is investigating the Waldo Canyon fire, but I’m not convinced there will be an announcement if there is something more than a garden-variety firebug at work.
Despite the objections of many of the locals, President Obama will be arriving in Colorado Springs tomorrow to gladhand and campaign survey the damage. I’m certain our President will be able to turn back the flames with the power of his mind, and won’t burden anyone at all with any security concerns.
<blockquote>Despite the objections of many of the locals, President Obama will be arriving in Colorado Springs tomorrow to gladhand and campaign survey the damage. I’m certain our President will be able to turn back the flames with the power of his mind, and won’t burden anyone at all with any security concerns.</blockquote>Damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t Partisan political rhetoric is lazy-ass blogging
This isn’t partisan. There’s nothing that Obama can do on the ground in Colorado Springs other than cause traffic snarls and security concerns. I’d have no problem with him showing up in Denver (despite the fact that it completely screws traffic for all of downtown and means my husband won’t get to work or home from work in anything near a timely manner) to support Hickenlooper. Hick needs the support right now, he’s incredibly shaken. He’s usually a very composed man and a fairly eloquent speaker and he’s having trouble getting sentences out right now. (Not saying that as a slam against Hick – he’s doing about as well as I’d expect anyone to do facing what he’s facing right now.)
And for the record, I think Dubya did the right thing not showing up on the ground in Louisiana. I think an argument can be made that it makes even less sense for Obama to show up in the Springs right now, it’s an active wildfire with urban involvement with unpredictable behavior. No one thought the fire was going to jump the firebreaks, but it did faster than anyone thought was possible. If the fire suddenly explodes again (and explode is the word that is being used to describe what happened Tuesday), is the priority going to be on evacuating the people or evacuating the President?
POTUS are in a unnavigable position when a crisis occurs: the ‘photo-ops VS. sincere concern’ argument. Just day to day politics is a tightrope of poor briefings and lack of asking common sense mistakes .
BTW, POTUS has a pre-determined exit plan, independent of the public in any situation
There are a limited number of ways out of the Springs. Any pre-determined exit plan the President has will be closing off one of those routes to civilians. Traffic out of the Springs was taking two hours for what’s normally a ten to fifteen minute drive earlier this week, how much of a snafu is security for a president going to introduce?
Did alice say something along the lines of “President Obama hates Colorado People?” Did she allege that Democrats set the fire to punish rich suburban people?
No? Then maybe you won’t mind sitting down and shutting the fuck up. What you call “partisan political rhetoric”, I call simply assessing the facts.
wintersetruss, “partisan political rhetoric” refers all sources regardless of one’s republican, democrat or libertarian politics.
If your representative cannot govern the visit, it is their prerogative to say so. In your language, it is his/her job not to sit down and shut the fuck up
BTW, POTUS would leave a fire situation by helicopter and it would not be a factor in road traffic