The day that the Waldo Canyon Fire came over of the ridge

Pictures of Waldo Canyon Fire

This morning I interviewed Ken Hughlett who works in Emergency Management for the utility company. During the Waldo Canyon and Black Forest fires Ken was the director of the Emergency Center. During the Black Forest he was helping to manage the evacuations and trying to figure out what neighborhoods should go on evacuations depending on the direction of the fire. People knew that their was a potential that the Waldo Canyon fire could come over the ridge, but people did not expect the fire to come over as quick and fast as it did. With Waldo Canyon fire the response was slower, because the firefighters had hike to and find the fire in the Waldo Canyon. Black Forest was easier to get to, because there is lots of access to the Black Forest. Since both fires there are better response plans and to send multiple resources. The goal is fore another fire is to act quicker and respond quicker to the fire. Ken mentioned that foe both fires we used resources from across the country and within the state of Colorado. Then we also used military resources like the National Guard and resources from Fort Carson an Army base in southern Colorado Springs. When I asked Ken what people can do to help prevent fires especially in the forest area. People can do better forest management around their houses especially with the dead trees which would reduce the fire load. Zeroscaping will also help, but mulch still catches on fire and then can burn the house so making sure that the mulch is further away from the house so the firefighters can fight fire around the house and save the house. Both fires affected Ken professionally, because it changed the functions in the utilities operation center. Moisture is a delicate process, because when we have a ton of moisture there is growth and it creates certain fuels for a fire.  

My second interview was with Erin who worked in Emergency Operations Center for ten days during the Waldo Canyon Fire and now Erin works in Emergency Management, which was her role during the Black Forest Fire. There were a lot of lessons learned from the Waldo Canyon fire that helped them when the Black Forest Fire happened.  Erin was relaying messages from the firefighters to the people briefing and letting them know what neighborhoods needed to evacuate. The Black Forest fire was known as a type one incident. Some people think that little amounts of moisture will help us, but it will only help out a little bit. Prolonged climate change affects the likelihood of wildfires in the state. Even with a ton of snow their could a wildfire burning under the snow which is consider deep moisture, but there is a difference fuels like if the grass is completely dry or if it has a ton of moisture. Erin mentioned that there were no community meetings after 2013, because there was a comfort level heavy rain. With the Black Forest Fire there was quicker respond time to fire than there was at the Waldo Canyon Fire. The Waldo Canyon Fire nobody expected the fire to come over the ridge and because it caught everybody by surprise it took time to get resources in place and there were not enough resources at first. For the Black Forest Fire there were quicker response from everyone including the military and communication. With the Spring Fire when it first started had the same characteristics of when Waldo Canyon Fire and Black Forest Fire, but the Spring Fire has more characteristics of the Waldo Canyon fire like iritic behavior that firefighters do not usually see in fires. During the summer of 2012 and 2013 they did not run out of water in reservoirs, but there was a concern about rampart reservoirs, because the water could have been contaminated for drinking water. 

Today I conducted two interviews one with Linda and the other interview was with Erin. Linda lived in Mountain Shadows, which was evacuation zone 2, and her dad lived in another part of Mountain shadows, which was evacuation zone 1. Linda’s dad lost everything in the Waldo Canyon Fire it took him six months to rebuild after the fire. He did rebuild in the same place.  Her dad had his car and a suitcase, because he was visiting her sister in a different state. After the Waldo Canyon Fire fire there was a program called Colorado Springs Together, which provided resources for people who lost anything in the Waldo Canyon Fire. Linda works in Emergency Response Management at the Colorado Springs Utilities. After the fire the codes had changed on rebuilding their houses. There was a short time with coordination and planning. The Waldo Canyon fire was an eye-awakening event for the utilities of Colorado Springs. They also wanted to help the people who were evacuated and what there needs were especially for the people who lost everything. The organizations helped with those needs. Multiple people were working around the clock to help the firefighters or contributing in other ways. There were multiple companies also helping out with supplies and resources. Rampart reservoir did have enough water to help with putting out the fire Linda did mention that there were not that many planes flying to grab the water to put on the fire. Linda mentioned that a lot of people learned from the fires and the community needs to become more aware and needs to trust more as well. From the fire there were a lot of reactions with properties being at ground zero and power lost and not being able to open garage doors. When the Black Forest fire happened there was no Colorado Springs Together. Linda had a different role during the Black Forest Fire than she during the Waldo Canyon Fire.

Tonight I interviewed a Fire Chief who worked both the Waldo Canyon Fire and the Black Forest fire. He was the person in charge during the Waldo Canyon fire; he was giving the orders to the firefighters on where they needed to go in order to fight fire. When I interviewed Mike he said mention that Waldo Canyon also had a personal affect on him, because he mentioned that neighbors lost their houses and things that were important to them. Both fires were human caused, but not exactly sure what started the fire. The resources were not scarce they had enough resources in order to put the fires out and they were assembling resources quickly. Colorado and Texas do not have a fire marshall over the fire stations and there are only two states. The rest of the states have fire marshall. Mike did mention that Waldo Canyon area still suffers from flooding occasionally and Black Forest also was faced with flooding as a concern. For people to help with prevention for wildfires people should mitigate their properties more and mitigating their properties will reduce the fuel loading for fires. Education is a big thing for people to understand that they need more space around their houses, because if there is a fire than with more space firefighters can save people’s houses and can fight the fire around the house. The last thing for prevention is to do mitigation on water shed and doing more to educate people and to work together on the mitigation and education. Once when we train the public people to respond better and to act better when there is an emergency. Training our first responders to do more and be more equipped for the future. The Black Forest fire was the most destruction fire in Colorado’s history. The Hayman fire is still the first largest fire Colorado has seen. Thursday I have two interviews and then on Saturday morning I will have my last interview.

The last of my interviews to be conducted will be happening next week. I will be doing in the early evening; I will also be doing a phone interview next Saturday. The second to last interview will either be on Monday or the following week. The last interview will also be sometime in the afternoon next week. I will be interviewing a Fire Chief I will ask him questions about the fires and will be seeing his perspective on moisture levels and how much moisture we need to stay avoid high red flag days. The following two people all work in the water department at Colorado Springs Utility. I will also be interviewing someone from the Emergency Management Coordination team at Colorado Springs Utility. Linda who I will be interviewing has personal story with the Waldo Canyon Fire she lives in the second evacuation area. The neighborhood was evacuated after mountain shadows, which was the first evacuation area. The Mountain Shadows neighborhood was the closest neighborhood to the fire when it came over the ridge. Linda’s lived in mountains shadows neighborhood and he lost his house in the fire. Once when I conduct the interviews and I am done with the interviews I will have a diverse overview, different perspectives. I will have different perspectives from the fireside of things, water and the Emergency management side. I just have to set up times with people, but hopefully they all are next in the beginning of the week. Once when I have the information from the interviews I will be able to finish my annotated bib.  I am going to start working on my paper this weekend and hopefully finish the paper by the end of next week if not the week after.