I hope it turns out to be a bottle focusing the sun’s rays but fear the timing and lack of precursors indicate malicious origin. The matter is still under investigation while firefighters continue to battle the monster. The weather hadn’t cooperated which was why you saw the tremendous growth earlier this week; everyone says this will be studied for years to come due to the literally explosive growth caused by high winds.

As someone who lives near this fire, I pay very high fire insurance rates, probably rightfully so (even though I have a fire resistant roof). I know I don’t get any subsidy. I agree that people should pay for the risk they incur to live in a (usually beautiful) forest.

By way of analogy: in California, we learned to build and live in ways that could withstand earthquakes. Bolts on the house foundation, bungees to protect valuables in the kitchen cabinets, etc. I’ve survived large earthquakes without trouble. In other parts of the world, even a small earthquake is a disaster.

More directly to your point: yes it is stupid for Home Owner Associations (HOA’s) to require fire-prone shake roofs. I suspect we’ll soon see a number of lawsuits because that’s exactly what some HOA’s used to require right here in Colorado Springs.

On the other hand, for many years it has been shown that proper fire-retardent roofing and siding, fire-resistant landscaping, and general good care, can enable one to build and live in peaceful coexistence with a forest. I suspect that most of the still-standing homes in the fire-ravaged areas will prove to have been properly adapted for that context.

There will always be exceptions. My roof is class IV fire and hail resistant. But if it were hit by four+ inch grapefruit-size hail, not only could the roof be destroyed, so could the plywood sheathing underneath.

http://www.ds.org/files/waldocanyon2012/WaldoCanyon-6-29-2012-0111-plh.kml

At the same time we have people who live in river bottom land, and very time their homes get flooded many people question why they built in flood-prone areas – and then get federal funds to rebuild their houses on the same homesites.

I grew up along the Mississippi across from St Louis. After the 1992 floods, the people of Valmeyer, Illinois decided enough was enough. They’d had horrendous flooding in 1973, and 1992 was just more than they could stand. They abandoned their flood-prone town location and began relocating on higher ground, up on the bluffs a mile to the east. Smart move.

I also lived a couple of years in Denver. For those who don’t know it, Denver is not up in the Rockies. Like Colorado Springs, it is on the plain. Both cities have expanded up into the foothills (which is what you see burning in the photo). But ALL of that – plains and foothills – is technically desert. And non-technically, too. Whenever I’ve been out there I’ve wondered why people would build in areas that are going to have forest fires, due to the aridity. It is like that all along the Front Range: desert with suburban living intermingled. It is a recipe for a disaster. This year their luck ran out, and they blame it on global warming – and they are wrong. Wildfires will happen there till the next millennium, s they have for thousands of years.

Not meaning to seem unfeeling, but how are the people building in fore4st fire areas any less sensible than people who build in flood plains?

The outcome of these fires will be that the people will rebuild on the same sites, funded by insurance companies and the feds. And then everyone will hold their breaths and hope it doesn’t happen again.

But, of course, it will.

Steve Garcia

Very best and most compassionate wishes to your sister, and her community. An event like that is very, very scary. It truly reminds us that we are just ants on this Earth when it comes to large scale natural events.

I also wish that people who believe in a gentle, caring, fragile Gaia would comprehend how an ant/human feels in the face of a firestorm (or volcanic eruption, tsunami, etc).

Please let us know how your sister and her community are going as this unfolds.

Have yet to see the friend that lost her home since she is in the mtg at UCCS.

Mark

Mark

And, the BCP’s are NOT near the fire. They are South and East of Pike’s Peak, which (to now) is not in danger.