Late yesterday morning, we noticed the first plume of smoke directly west of us up in the mountains - always an unwelcome sight this time of year, but an expected one with the high temperatures, low humidity, little recent rainfall and high winds. Within a couple of hours, it was obvious that it was going to be a big one.
As of this morning, the fire had burned over 8,000 acres, destroyed 18 homes, and forced the evacuation of over 1600 people. It's currently 0% contained - this is very difficult terrain for the firefighters - very steep, heavily wooded and hard to access.
I was up at around 3AM this morning and when I looked out, I could see a huge red glow lighting the smoke plume from beyond the foothills. It looked like Mordor in Lord of the Rings.
And this morning, the smell of smoke was very strong, and the view to the west was totally obscured by the smoke plume. This is going to be a bad one - this area to the west of Fort Collins has many homes.
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