A number of families, members of the Presbyterian Church in America and other Reformed churches, were displaced (there were unconfirmed reports that a couple of their houses may have been destroyed, but residents have not been allowed back into the fire damaged area).  At present the number of those displaced is around 75 families.

Colorado Springs began burning on Saturday, June 23. Smoke was seen rising from Waldo Canyon on that Saturday. The first neighborhood to be evacuated was just south of Garden of the Gods and six days later those residents have not yet been allowed to return to their houses.

As the fire spread, other communities and neighborhoods were placed under mandatory evacuation. The whole city of Manitou Springs, over 5,000 residents, were required to evacuate. Then by Sunday other communities west along U.S. 24 to Woodland Park, like Crystal Lake, Cascade, Green Mountain Falls, and Chipita Park, were evacuated. By Tuesday afternoon, the fire moved north along the ridge line threatening areas like Glen Eyrie, the headquarters of the Navigators.

Then the fire jumped a major ridge line and came down on the city side; it had been on the west facing side of the ridge where there is little population. There was a blast of a big wind that came up suddenly around 5 p.m.; it was like a wind tsunami that pushed the fire over the ridge and around 300 houses were eventually destroyed by the unrelenting fire. This is the fire that completely engulfed the Flying W Ranch, an iconic tourist attraction in Colorado Springs for 60 years.

The Colorado Springs Gazette reported it this way:

 “When the erratic wildfire marched closer to Queens Canyon on a hot and windy Tuesday afternoon, fire crews dedicated every resource available to prevent the fast-moving flames from jumping over. 

Aircraft painted the ridgeline red with slurry. Tractors and bulldozers ripped into the ground to create a boundary, aiding the hundreds of boots on the ground.

But a dangerous mix of winds blowing up to 65 mph, steep, rugged terrain and tinder-dry fuels created an inferno that forced thousands of Colorado Springs residents to flee and reduced dozens, if not hundreds, of homes to ash and debris.”

This region, with names like Mountain Shadows, Rockrimmon, Woodmen Valley, and even parts of the Air Force Academy, were evacuated bringing the number to 32,000 now displaced. With this sudden burst of wind, heavy smoke and ashes covered the whole city of Colorado Springs. As some noted, residents woke up the next day to a much different city and landscape than the day before.

A number of families, members of the Presbyterian Church in America and other Reformed churches, were displaced (there were unconfirmed reports that a couple of their houses may have been destroyed, but residents have not been allowed back into the fire damaged area).  At present the number of those displaced is around 75 families.

Donations can be made online to the Deacons Fund of Village Seven Presbyterian Church here. Or you can donate through Mission to North America Disaster Response.

Read more from the Gazette.

Photos of the fire’s destruction.

@Copyright 2012 The Aquila Report – all rights reserved

[Editor’s note: Some of the original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid, so the links have been removed.]