Four New Fires This Week Threaten My Home

Colorado is a tinder box yet humans are being careless with fire. What is wrong with people who ignore the obvious dangers to people, animals, and property?

Alexander Mountain Fire, the first of four fires so far this week, from a few miles south of my house. Photo by the author.

Just over 10 days ago, we’d been RV camping in our favorite place up in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains for four days already, going out to soak in the hot springs or walk in between rain storms. The rain had been relentless this trip.

So then, why was it so hazy when we looked out on Monday morning, July 22nd? We couldn’t see anything past the middle of the valley, not the plains, not the road, and not the San Juan Mountains on the other side. It was thick with smoke. Where was the fire?

In one of the pools later, another vacationer told me it was from smoke in Canada, Oregon, and Washington, which then brought about a bigger discussion with those of us in the pool about fires we’ve had in Colorado, especially those that occurred in Boulder County, from which all of us coincidentally hailed. One Boulder bicyclist recounted seeing the start of several fires while riding. It’s a common hazard in Colorado now, deadly fires.

The biggest, of course, was December 2021’s Marshall Fire in Boulder County, which took out 1,000 homes and killed two…