Taken from Loveland, Colorado which is the town it threatens to encroach on if the winds shift. The initial report was 100 acres and it grew by 150 or so every hour. I’ve been doing irrigation work outside for two hours and already have a terrible headache. That smoke plume is heading toward Denver with the entire front range of the Rockies obscured.
Edit: super cool. It has again more or less doubled in size over the past few hours and is now at 3575 acres. The smoke plume in this photo is quaint compared to how it now is. A second fire has started just south of it, also close to a town, so the suppression efforts will be split.
Oh hell yeah. A second fire erupted this afternoon just south of the Alexander Mountain Fire. Instead of threatening Loveland and the smaller Masonville along with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado–Big_Thompson_Project, it’s right outside the town of Lyons. The winds are carrying it toward the larger fire which is creating its own weather. My first announcement a few hours ago was 30 acres, then 300 an hour ago, and now 450. We’ve only mustered around 200 firefighters so far for the first fire, and I’ve consistently seen three attack aircraft flying over it. Now they’re split between the two. This could be a really interesting fire to watch.