{"id":10795,"date":"2012-06-12T16:58:26","date_gmt":"2012-06-12T22:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=10795"},"modified":"2019-04-06T12:28:36","modified_gmt":"2019-04-06T18:28:36","slug":"the-colorado-high-park-fire-a-personal-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2012\/06\/12\/the-colorado-high-park-fire-a-personal-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"The Colorado High Park Fire – A Personal Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fear of anyone living in the mountains is fire. While there are many ways to protect your home from the onslaught of a raging wave of fire, click sometimes there is nothing you can do.<\/p>\n

This past weekend, the residents of Northern Colorado saw such a fire develop and it continues today, 4 days later.<\/p>\n

The High Park Fire has gained notoriety and priority due to the explosive size and location next to an area of 250,000 people.<\/p>\n

Started by a lightening strike deep in the Roosevelt Forest, it started as a smolder but soon grew to 2 acres, then 200 then 2000. It doubled in size every half day until now it is the 3rd largest fire in Colorado history at 43,333 acres (67 sq miles, 17,500 hectares).<\/p>\n

First Sighting<\/h3>\n

On Sunday, June 9, my friend Jim Davidson<\/a> and I were climbing Longs Peak (14,256′) in Rocky Mountain National Park when we saw smoke rising from the forest just north of us.<\/p>\n

It quickly grew and I called my wife from the summit to learn it had grown from 2 to 5000 acres within a few hours. I took the picture\u00a0 in the upper left and this video to capture that moment.<\/p>\n