Black Forest Fire, Colorado Springs, Colorado
The Black Forest fire started on Tuesday 06/11/13 around 1:00pm just after lunch near Shoup Road and Highway 83, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
I rode my Harley into work that day, and when I went out during lunch time, I could feel the dry hot wind on my face; Matter of fact one person asked me as I got off my bike in front of a store, “Is this a little hot for you?” I thought to myself, “Yeah too hot, this is fire weather”, not knowing only minutes later a fire would explode just a couple of miles away from where I work.
I was back at work before 1:00pm, and parked my bike in a basement parking structure and headed up the stairs. I could smell smoke in the air as I rode in, so I went to northwest side of the building and looked out the window on the second floor. To my dismay, I could see dark smoke rising out in the distance. A co-worker just happened to walk by, and I said, “Here we go again”.
Last year Colorado Springs experience one hell of a wild fire called the Waldo Canyon Fire. It started as a forest fire that made its way to the northwest side of the city through Queen’s Canyon then blazed into the Mountain Shadows, Oak Vally Ranch, and Peregrine subdivisions fueled with 65mph winds. This was by far the worst wild fire Colorado had ever experienced until now.
The following two videos are time-lapse videos shot with my GoPro camera at the location where I work. They both show the movements of the smoke in the skies of Colorado.
This first clip was shot on the afternoon of 06/12/13 at a frame rate of 1 shot per 60 seconds. It took just under 4 hours to record snapping 235 pictures. I used the software Pinnacle Studio 14, to put together the single frame shots and alter the speed.
This second clip was shot on the afternoon of 06/13/13 at a frame rate of 1 shot per 30 seconds. It took just under 3 and a half hours to record snapping 413 pictures. I also increased the over all speed to shorten the video, but also added still pictures at the end which show helicopter and plane involvement.
These are the statistics as of today, 5:00pm 06/13/13:
– Two people have died trying to escape the fire in their vehicle.
– 38,000 people were evacuated.
– Over 15 thousand acres have been burned.
– 360 homes have been destroyed.
This is the worst wildfire in Colorado’s history to date.
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UPDATE! As of Saturday, 06/15/13, ( 480 ) homes have been destroyed, ( 17 ) partial damage, and ( 3338 ) saved within the hot zone. The fire has a 45% containment and some evacuations have been lifted.
Category: In the News, The Z-Files
