Jail and a fine seem to be her punishment, and partly for not telling the truth from the start to investigators.

Not telling the truth to investigators should be punishable, I agree. But surely, in arid timber ecosystems, wildfires are natural? Certainly in Australia (or was it Africa? or both?) there are trees which cannot propagate except just after a wildfire.

The punishments should be meted out to the developers and realtors who sell housing land in places where natural "disasters" are virtually bound to happen sooner or later. In the UK, where some regions (including near Cambridge) have had three nominally "25-year" floods in eighteen months, insurers are starting to refuse cover to people in obviously flood-plain areas. Two hundred yards from the Empeg office, by the river Cam, is a playing field that's been under a foot of water (pics 9, 10) three times in two years. Now they're going to build houses on it. That's criminal.

Peter

But surely, in arid timber ecosystems, wildfires are natural?

Yes, but there is a difference here. She started it by burning paper during an absolute fire ban, and it quickly got out of hand. Out of all the wildfires in this state this year, only a few have been natural. The Hayman fire is a huge mess due to it being a really windy weekend when it started. Most of the fire spread happened in the first two days, the days it was up to around 1-2 miles per hour. Had it been natural, it would have probably been started by lightning, something that area hasn't seen for weeks.

Sure, it's going to be a while before that particular land area burns again, but due to her actions, the fire ban turned into a closure of all the parks in the area, and it will probably last the entire summer. It also caused firefighting resources to be strained in the state, instead of a natural fire happening at another time. Had she not stated this one when she did, the coal seam fire would probably be out now, and more resources could be dedicated to the one burning out of control in the south western part of the state.

One of the worst fires that our hometown ever saw (several years ago) was known as the "49er fire" and it claimed a lot of acreage and some structures.

It was started by a homeless person who lived in the woods in a nearby area. He was burning a pile of used toilet paper.

I actually knew who this guy was. I mean, not personally, but I'd seen him around and spoken to him. I worked at a jewelry store at the time, and I would go out in the front of the store in the mornings before it opened and wash the windows. This guy used to come around to all the businesses in the area and offer to wash the windows as a way of making money.

Just a general update, a few days ago the fire surged east, putting towns near Colorado Springs on standby, and raising fears it could do even more damage. A third team is now in place to protect Woodland Park and metro Colorado Springs from damage.

The bad news? The eastern surge was right in the direction of the cabin. I have not heard anything yet about it because it did stop short of the highway, but flying embers have been a problem for the residential subdivision nearby. If the fire races east again, it will most likely take the cabin, and hit the trigger point for evacuations of Monument and Palmer Lake, two towns just minutes north of where I live on I-25.

The good news is that it did stop, and yesterday was a calm day. They expected similar conditions to the two other fore growth days, and it didn't happen. Last I knew, they were going back over that area on the eastern edge and trying to widen the lines they made to try and contain it. So far, it looks like the last uncontrolled part is now the north western corner, where it runs the risk ot going into steep (up to 11,000 feet) terrain, and areas where no roads exist. This will make it troublesome to fight, but does mean there is little risk of more structures being lost.

Hopefully this huge mess will be over. But with huge fires all over the western US now, it looks like the only time the firefighters will see a day of rest is when summer is over.

The Rodeo fire in Arizona is consuming the area that we used to go camping while I was growing up. And my sister has land and a summer home 30 miles east of Show Low which was partially evacuated over the weekend. The fire has not reached Show Low yet. No sign of containment on this fire yet. I know what you're going through. Hope for the best. Here's a great website for the Rodeo Fire info

Greetings!

Any more updates?

Oops, last update looked a bit grim didn't it :-)

All is well right now, I was able to actually go sit on the hillside and enjoy the area again on Saturday. The cabin and surrounding areas are fine, and for the most part the fire is contained. It's only active now on the north west edge, and will probably continue to burn there for a while. It's only burning unoccupied and rough terrain, and firefighters will probably just set up a massive fireblock on the other side to stop it. Access to the area is limited, (barley any roads whatsoever plus steep mountain terrain), so fighting it any other way would be dangerous. The good news is that almost noone is on mandatory evacuation anymore, and life is slowly returning to normal for the residents of the areas affected. Signs of it will probably be around for a while though. On my ride up, it was clear the area was close to the fire, as the highway has huge ditches dug by bulldosers on each side near the cabin exit.

The forest remains closed, and probably will for quite some time. But for the most part, it's wrapping up. Smoke still lines our skies, and is bad enough at times to block the sun. I'll have to post a geocache picture of the ash in the air once I get it off my camera.

Now hopefully the resources freed up here can be used on fires like the Missionary Ridge or Rodeo fires.

It's very pathetic to know that both the Colorado and Arizona fires were started by people who were supposed to protect against fires. They should hang both of them from a burning tree and leave them to fate. The amount of destruction and death they both caused is enormous.

Yeah, what she said.

Sometimes I get a little bloodthirsty. I think the whole legal system is pretty much ineffective, a slap on the wrist or a little jail time doesn't seem to stop people from committing crimes. They need to fit the punishment to the crime And this one is at the top of my list of horrible crimes.

I definitly agree with you on this one.

And out of the 9 major wildfires burning right now in Colorado, 4 were caused by humans, totaling 222,845 acres. That right there is a fourth of the normal average in a year including lightning caused fires for the entire nation.

At almost 3 million acres this year so far, it's definitly going to be an expensive year for firefighting. It's costing about 7.39 million a day right now.

Oh, finally remembered the Geocache photo. This was taken a bit after sunset, when a friend and I were searching still. The amount of ash the flash caught is amazing.

Greetings!

I am glad that things are finally looking up, and that the recovery has begun. It will be amazing to watch how the land recovers from a fire this severe.

Meanwhile, as to punishing the guilty. I agree they should be punished. Especially the guy in Arizona - starting the fire to make money as a part time firefighter. That was deliberately done, and he should be (insert favorite terrible fate here). As to the woman who started your fire - she lied about it, it was stupid, she knew better, but it was still an accident. She should be tried to the fullest extent of the law, and given plenty of time (preferably on the order of a few hundred years) to think about it: the damage she did, the people she killed (weren't a number of firefighters killed in this fire?).

weren't a number of firefighters killed in this fire?

Not that I know of. Due to the incident up in Glenwood Springs a few years back where 14 did die, their ground fighting was much more cautious. I know of at least one incidental death, of an older woman in Denver who passed away from health problems relating to the smoke and ash though.

Wasn't there a plane lost? I don't remember which fire, but a plane dropping that red fire prevention slurry got caught in a sharp updraft and sheared the wings.

Ahh yes, a commercial (ie older) one in California. Story here

Then theres the crash of a van that killed firefighters on their way to help, story is here.

And lastly, the death due to the smoke, was actually in Colorado Springs. More here.

But no deaths yet of on the job firefighters at ground level.