Colorado has faced its worst wildfire season in history and three fires continue to rage: The High Park fire in Ft. Collins, the Flagstaff Fire in Boulder, and the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs.
The photos of the fire were dramatic, but the aftermath images show the true impact of the disaster.
But those are only the beginning. After a mild winter that saw relatively little precipitation, a number of other fires are burning all across the state. Little Sand, Treasure, Weber, Eby Creek, Lightner, and Pine Ridge. Almost 133,000 acres of forest and more than 650 homes have been destroyed. That's to say nothing of the cost of fighting the fires, which is about $40 million.
When I drove away from Boulder a little over two weeks ago to visit California, the High Park fire was an ominous, but not immediately threatening mushroom cloud on the horizon. Not long after I left, the weather, already very dry, got hot, and now we're seeing the worst wildfire season ever. Ryan Maye Handy, a reporter for the Colorado Springs Gazette told me that the air can be hard to breathe there. Friends in Boulder and Denver tell me the weather is still uncomfortably, and dangerously, hot.
But even though it's freaky for me to see pictures of the mountains behind my house ablaze when I'm 1,000 miles away, it is immeasurably worse for those who's homes and belongings have gone up in flames. My heart goes out to all of those who lost the unwinable battle against heat, aridity, and wind.
Click through the gallery to see images of the devastation.
Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty