2013 Black Forest Fire - Late Post

Look closely and see the black vs. the remaining green area.

The Black Forest Fire which happened a couple of weeks ago became the most destructive fire in the history of Colorado.  It destroyed around 511 homes.  It was a very surreal feeling driving home the day the fire started seeing the smoke plume so close to town.  The cause hasn't been pinpointed yet but it wasn't caused by nature.   The evacuation area was very close to where we live.  Our old vet office was destroyed.  The church we occasionally attend survived but the hiking trail close to there was partially burned.  A girl I golf with lost her home but plans to rebuild.  When she was playing golf last week she noticed a couple of burn holes in her golf towel.  That's how close the fire embers were to her as she was throwing things into the back of her truck to escape.  Her home was very near to the beginning of the fire.  We haven't driven out into the area yet but I hear that it is devastating.  When I drive to work I can look east from a certain spot on my drive and see the burned trees.  There was the fear that it could have jumped the road and come up thru a wooded park where we hike and continue north into our area.  Alot of people are trying to improve their fire mitigation.  One of my friends just cut down over 50 trees.  We have a few we probably need to remove and we have always been picking up pine cones and needles.