Four Mile Canyon Fire
The Four Mile Canyon Fire started Monday, September 6th, at approximately 10:00 AM about 5 miles West of Boulder, Colorado. They know the cause was “human”, but they don’t know if it was accidental or intentional.
The fire took off in steep terrain with a mixture of Douglas fir, Ponderosa pine, and grasses as fuel, pushed by low humidity and gusty winds. I have been monitoring it, but yesterday the humidity went up and the winds died, so it looked like they would be able to get it under control.
Well, Hermine intervened. The remnant low from Hermine that has been responsible for flooding and storms in Texas, Oklahoma and that general neighborhood, has kicked up the winds, and they aren’t the water-filled winds creating the havoc in the Southeast.
Currently the fire has burned more than 6350 acres and is 30% contained. So far the local Sheriff’s Department has confirmed that 169 homes have been destroyed. Only four people are reported missing, and there are no confirmed deaths. Twenty subdivisions west of Boulder have been evacuated and 3 major County Roads are closed because of the fire.
The Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests and the Pawnee National Grassland are affected and the fire has been elevated to a Type 1 Incident.
There are currently 550 firefighters 13 crews, 75 engines, 5 helicopters, and 7 air tankers at the scene, with more resources on the way.
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…I noted with some interest today when I drove past the air tanker base that the gaggle of tankers that had been parked on the ramp during last month’s fire activity has been thinned out considerably. I suspect I know where some of them went….
Tonight’s Red Flag Warning for gusty west winds and low humidity and the current conditions displayed on the Boulder NWS site (at 2145 Hr MDT: 72 degrees/10% humidity/wind speed 31 with gusts to 40) are disturbing facts. The key will be how much work was accomplished on the eastern flank of the fire during today’s shift, because there isn’t much to do but pull back and watch if it escapes containment along the eastern flank with that sort of wind and humidity…
Nothing I see on the InciWeb site is encouraging. Transitioning from a Type 2 Incident Management Team to a Type 1 IMT team at shift change this evening kinda sorta suggests that somebody somewhere doesn’t necessarily think this thing is over. Type 2 teams routinely handle fires of this size, while the Type 1 teams (called National teams in insider parlance, although both Type 2 and Type 1 teams can work all over the country) handle larger, more complex incidents (not only wild fires, but everything from elements of response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill to coordination of portions of the aftermath and cleanup in NYC after the 9/11 attacks, although I will note that the local Type 2 team that some of my coworkers belong to did a post-Katrina tour). Turning this incident over to a Type 1 team catches my attention because they aren’t normally called in to clean up in the aftermath of an incident managed by a Type 2 team and suggests that somebody somewhere suspects that the complexity of the incident may grow…
I was looking at the weather maps and things look bad for a while. Hermine has essentially shifted all of the moisture to the southeast and the cold front coming in from the west isn’t generating any rain activity. That indicates winds and low humidity for days.
I’m familiar with the Types in a general sense, but they just went to Type 2 in the last day or so. It was being handled by the locals and wasn’t up on the InciWeb site when I checked during the first couple of days.
The topo shows nothing but hills and gullies. The gullies, ravines, canyons are what make the SoCal fires so explosive, acting like chimneys, and the fir and pine are much worse than the live oak in the back country around San Diego. I’ve seen a “run” while driving on I-15, and I wouldn’t want to be on the ground near one.
With all of the structures to protect, I’m not sure that the locals would have had much time to build lines, so I assume the Forest Service was doing that. I didn’t see any bulldozers mentioned, but I assume they have some available where the terrain allows. This could get even worse very quickly given the wind direction and strength. The winds also reduce the effectiveness of the airdrops.
Yeah, It doesn’t look very good. Reminds me of how some of our really bad fires started in recent years. 🙁
And you’re right about fires in heavy tree growth gullies and ravines. It’s partly what happened here last year. The fuel (mostly Eucalyptus) was so dense that when they were burning in the gully, they super heated the trees above up to the ridges which just basically exploded and created wild fireballs, which then heated the air to the point where hot fast winds were generated and push the fire. There’s no way to put that out until most of the fuel has burned off, and once it starts… It will just keep going until the fuel runs out.
I really hope everyone stay’s smart and safe! Get out while the getting out’s good. It’s not something worth taking a chance with.
I have an interest in this fire because I lived or worked in Boulder for eight years — 1982-1990 — and I have a lot of friends there, including some who live uncomfortably close to the burn area.
I hope they’re all safe.
There has been a lot of damage due to beetle infestations in the Douglas fir, so there is a lot of dead timber involved in the fire, and the evergreens are resinous and flammable like the Eucalyptus. This close to Boulder it has probably been difficult to have controlled burns to clean out the debris and duff in the area.
Like a lot of beautiful areas, MB, the beauty can kill you if you don’t keep it in check. If you have trees too close to your house or live in an isolated location, you are putting yourself at risk.