Living in Colo. wildland makes firefighting hard

(CBS News) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The high temperatures and tinderbox conditions are all but guaranteeing that progress in fighting the western wildfires will be spotty at best. We begin with this report from Colorado's Waldo Canyon fire, which began a week ago Saturday.

If the worst seems over here, this state is braced for more trouble somewhere else.

"It super dry all over," said Jerry Mard of the U.S. Forest Service. "It's just not on our force, it's up and down the front range throughout Colorado. We are still in extreme drought conditions."

This already brutal fire season is raising questions about the trend of people making a home in mountainous wildland areas. In Colorado Saturday, it's estimated that 1 in 4 houses is in a wildland area. That's more than a million people, a fifth of the state's population. And it makes a tough job for firefighters that much harder.

"When you have homes all intermixed in there," said Greg Heule, a retired Colorado Springs firefighter, "then your concentration is on those homes [and it] takes a lot more resources to do it. And then the wildland fire continues while you're concentrating on the homes that are in the wildland area."

Steve Holsenback and Carla DeVaughn were evacuated a week ago. They kept an eye on their house from a path and thought their house in the mountains above the city was gone after a picture showed fire behind their house. But it survived.

On Saturday, they were allowed in but warned to be ready for evacuation on 10 minutes notice. Still, they love living in nating.

"I'm sitting there eating breakfast and watching chipmunks and foxes sitting out there on the birdfeeders, eating like I'm eating," said Carla.

And facing this fire is not going to chase them away.

"I think I'll have less fear now that I have seen what the firefighters can do, how they can handle a situation like this," said Carla.

Despite all that bad weather elsewhere, some good weather here: lower temperatures, no big wind gust. Some good news announced just moments ago: this fire now is 45 percent contained.

Two-thirds of Colo. wildfire evacuees back home

[jumkey]

It's funny to hear rural conservative people demand the government fix their problems. No hypocrisy there.

Where I live I pay for a city fire department. The rural, unincorporated parts of the county are rabidly conservative and rabidly anti-tax. They have voted on at least 3 occasions NOT to fund a county fire service. But when the wildfires come through they're whining and crying and demanding they get those services they refuse to pay for.

American conservatives are pro-tax socialists - tax someone else and then demand to stick their snouts into the trough of other people's money.

[MorselArielle]

Jerri's last name is not MARD. Please correct this. It's MARR.

[walyert]

to knmewsteerrr!

Immirgration is the lifeblood of this country. It keeps us vibrant.

One child per couple makes us a draconian nation with no freedoms, like china where all the good products are ideas stolen from us. We should put a tarrif on all chinese products, statring at 10% and adding the same 10% every year until they change their ways. We can do free tade with all other countries,but not ChinaThis will also bring back jobs.

People have a right to live where they want.

[Mike_in_USA]

Did you even read the headline???

[CWOODS8178]

WOULD MORE HOMES IN THESE AREAS BE SAVED IF ALL HAD METAL ROOFS ? PASS THIS IDEA TO OTHERS .ASPHALT SHINGLES ARE NO BARRIER TO FIRES

[ralphing]

I'm thinking of building a home in a heavily wooded area. It is going to have a metal roof and slate siding. Big upfront cost but lower maintenance and almost impervious to fire. I'm also going to build in a two acre cleared area to keep the trees well away from the house. I don't need nature very close to my backdoor.

[MorselArielle]

Metal roofs in this area - in all areas - is a great idea. They help melt snow off them in the winter, and don't catch on fire. Add to that using concrete blocks and a cement exterior, and your home is much better protected, plus cooler in the summer.

[imright12]

Hopefully the wildfire burned down the hate organizations Focus on the Family and the Family Research Institute with those bigots in them.

[aintfakin]

the focus mega facility is east of I-25 and probably out of harms way. The fire may have whacked some of their over paid administrator's personal homes, though. What so you think god is punishing them for?
LOL

[aintfakin]

wildland? what wildland?
almost all of these houses that burned may have been on the fringe of the urban area but they were still contiguous with the urban area of Colorado Springs.
It isn't fire that is the problem. Fire is just a consequence of the real problem and that is WATER
The population that his migrated to the area between !-25 and the Pacific coast has already overextended the water supply (ok the West side of the Cascades in Wash and Ore maybe the only exception.)
It has been mentioned by a previous poster that population itself is also part of the problem.
The me first right wingers are going to love this but the govt may have to dictate no more building West of I-25. Stay east of the Mississippi where water and wildfires aren't nearly as big a problem

[knewsteerrrrr]

"I'm sitting there eating breakfast and watching chipmunks and foxes sitting out there on the birdfeeders, eating like I'm eating," said Carla.

And facing this fire is not going to chase them away.

"I think I'll have less fear now that I have seen what the firefighters can do, how they can handle a situation like this," said Carla."

Dont count on them to save your million dollar mcforest mansion indefinitely honey

[MorselArielle]

If they are eating like she is, are they having biscuits and gravy? :-)

[sallychicago]

Richard, every disaster that I see seems to be because people want to live where they shouldn't. It's only going to get worse. I hope they had adequate fire insurance protection....but what will happen in the future is insurance co's will demand a higher premium or just not offer insurance at all.

[richardkerry2]

This is the first, the FIRST, intelligent antithesis of the prevailing thesis of people living with nature, whose property should be protected by all means. As a former FS worker, as well as other related jobs to this service, I can tell you first hand the sacrifice of an entire ecosystem, where ever that system is in place, in force, and the loss of tens of thousands of wildlife creatures is not worth the price of saving one person's home. I know this response gets people mad, but the fact is, people should not be living in a "wall of green" and expect the FS and other agencies to sacrifice valuable manpower to safeguard human property when an entire and greater loss of nature is sacrificed. These fires could be better fought and paid attention to if the manpower was not mandated to put human property first. Nature must come first. This is what sustains all of us. People can always rebuild their lost property. It takes a hell of a lot longer to rebuild nature lost.

[knewsteerrrrr]

Nature must come first. This is what sustains all of us. People can always rebuild their lost property. It takes a hell of a lot longer to rebuild nature lost."

This is why we need a ONE child per couple law and ending all immigration in place until the US population is half what it is now- 1950 levels. Less people = LESS homes needed in the first place!

[55minus5]

Richard, you are so right.

[Lindag20]

Agree with you there. Unfortunately the people that insist of living in these areas TALK a lot louder than the wildlife and trees do.