UPDATE @ 10:20 a.m., Friday, Sept. 10
A few minutes ago someone posted an update at the InciWeb site for the Fourmile fire. It is the best update we have seen from the various incident management teams in the last four days. Here is an excerpt:
General Information/Announcements:
Thomas’ Great Basin Type 1 Incident Management Team took command of the fire at 6 p.m. last evening. Efforts are focused on coordinating with local agencies and the community to safely suppress the fire while ensuring the safety of the firefighters and general public, and to protect all structures within and adjacent to the fire. Firefighters spent a windy night extinguishing flare-ups near homes in the Sunshine Canyon area. Despite winds speeds in excess of 30 mph, the fire did not damage any homes or breach constructed fire lines. Gusty winds are expected again this afternoon.
Closures/Advisories/Evacuations:
Boulder County Sheriff’s Office announced that they will begin allowing residents access to some homes beginning at 9 am today. More information is available at www. BoulderOEM.com, or by calling 720-564-2935.
Evacuations: Several subdivisions remain evacuated and road closures are in still effect. For a complete list of the areas affected visit www. BoulderOEM.com.
Today’s Activity:
Firefighters will continue to construct control lines especially in the Boulder Heights area and to patrol and reinforce existing control lines throughout the fire area. Firefighters and equipment will be staged in several areas to provide quick response to fire spread or new spots that may result from forecasted gusty winds. Aircraft are available to support firefighting needs on the ground.
========================================
Posted at 9:54 a.m, Friday, Sept. 10
Someone sent us an email asking for an updated map of the fire. With the red flag warning and the winds predicted for Thursday night, a lot of people in the Boulder area, including those living in the city, have been concerned about the potential for the fire to spread. The warnings and the re-evacuations have people on edge.
The most current map we can find, after scouring several web sites, is one posted by Boulder County, and it is dated September 9 at 11:45 a.m. The maps of the fire at the official web page for the fire at InciWeb are out of date and/or terrible. And when we checked at 9:54 a.m on Friday, the InciWeb page had not been updated in the last 13 hours. It is a shame that the three Incident Management Teams that have managed this fire have not established, after four days, a one-stop internet location where concerned residents can get the information they need.
The USFS infrared mapping aircraft, N149Z, flew the fire at 2:20 a.m on Friday. The fire perimeter information from that flight has not been posted, as far as we can tell.
Beginning today, we will be working on a time-consuming project, and will not be able to post much additional information about the fire. Hopefully, these sites will have all the information you need:
InciWeb
Boulder County Office of Emergency Management
Boulder County Twitter site
Thanks for all the information you’ve been providing here. Your comments are spot on. The county websites should be consolidated into a single one-stop shop for information that can handle the load and traffic coming at it. The best updates I have received for Gold Hill area have come from people from in our community as well as our fire chief, Chris Finn, who spoke to us today around 11am.
Public meetings unfortunately run by the county have been little more than re-iterating the same information found online. I went to a single meeting and haven’t gone to anymore given the content.
I do think however they’re doing a super job considering the size of the blaze. The fire dept’s (local, state, and federal) and sheriff’s office personnel have really been doing a great job.
the wind and terrain have made this fire a particularly difficult one. We pray for calm weather, lower temps, and precipitation.
Excellent Google map showing burned homes from Boulder list and fire perimeter.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?t=k&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=117627580336796063346.00048fc1471fd5fd675bc&ll=40.049431,-105.384636&spn=0.059132,0.102997&z=13&source=embed
Thanks. That IS a good map.