Lefthand Fire. Photo by @SteveStaeger October 18, 2020.
Firefighters have been successful in slowing the spread of the Lefthand Fire which has burned 470 acres 11 miles west of Boulder, Colorado. After it was reported at 12:41 p.m. October 18 it was attacked aggressively with what was described by the Operations Section Chief as “a million dollars worth of retardant”. In spite of the brisk winds, strong work by the aircraft and personnel on the ground kept it from becoming a second major fire in the Boulder area, along with the Calwood Fire northwest of the city.
On Monday the fire was largely above the inversion layer, so aircraft were used extensively to assist ground crews. Firefighters are constructing containment lines with the assistance of aircraft when possible.
Calwood Fire, Oct. 17, 2020. Photo by Ben Nelson, Envision Studio, Boulder, Colorado.
Ben Nelson, a professional photographer at Envision Studio in Boulder, Colorado, took these photos as the Calwood Fire was spreading toward Highway 36 northwest of Boulder.
Calwood Fire, Oct. 17, 2020. Photo by Ben Nelson, Envision Studio, Boulder, Colorado.A lead plane assesses the Calwood Fire, Oct. 17, 2020 for possible air tanker targets. Photo by Ben Nelson, Envision Studio, Boulder, Colorado.Calwood Fire, Oct. 17, 2020. Photo by Ben Nelson, Envision Studio, Boulder, Colorado.
You can follow Ben on Instagram: @_bennelson and @envisionstudio
and on Twitter: @envisionBen
The Calwood Fire has burned 8,700 acres and destroyed over 20 homes.
To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Calwood Fire including the most recent, click here.
Many of the homes that were destroyed or damaged in the Calwood Fire on October 17 are in this Google Earth photo, looking north. The red line was the perimeter of the fire on October 18 at 9:35 p.m.
Of the 20+ homes that were damaged or destroyed in the Calwood Fire on October 17, most of them are in this Google Earth image. Mountain Ridge Road is called Mountain Ridge Drive by Boulder County OEM.
October 19, 2020 | 9:17 a.m. MDT
Homes destroyed in the Calwood Fire Oct. 17, 2020. Photo by CBS 4.File photo of the Mountain Ridge Road area. Google Earth. (Boulder County OEM calls it Mountain Ridge Dr.)
Officials in Boulder County, Colorado have documented 23 homes that were destroyed October 17 in the Calwood Fire. The process is ongoing and more buildings may be added as the surveys continue. The fire has burned 8,788 acres. Officials made attempts to notify all of the property owners but unfortunately were not able to reach everyone, so they made the list available in order to facilitate reaching all impacted residents and owners.
Evacuations are in effect for about 1,600 homes.
The weather on Sunday was cool and wet, resulting in very little additional movement of the fire. A few hundredths of an inch of rain gave firefighters a chance to begin the process of working the fire edge to stop the spread. The forecast indicates the respite is ending with the humidity dropping to 25 percent Monday and winds out of the west at 9 mph gusting to 16 under partly cloudy skies. Monday night the west winds will increase to 20 mph with gusts above 30 mph. These conditions could make it more difficult to contain the east side of the fire.
Below is an updated map of the Calwood Fire. Most of the growth over the last 24 hours, a small amount, was on the west side.
The history of fires north and west of Boulder, from 2000 to October 18, 2020.
The map shows the history of fires north and west of Boulder, Colorado from 2000 through October 18, 2020. It includes two fires that are currently active, the Lefthand and Calwood Fires.
The fire on the map that is most notable for many Coloradans is likely the 6,200-acre Fourmile Canyon Fire on Labor day of 2010:
It burned 169 homes.
12 of those were firefighters’ homes.
This was one of the first fires where it became known that private firefighters hired by an insurance company defended homes of policy holders that were valued at more than $1 million.
The state of Colorado did not apply for disaster assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide help for the property owners that were affected by the fire. If a disaster declaration had been requested and then approved by the President, FEMA may have made assistance available for individuals including temporary housing, disaster losses not covered by insurance, related medical costs, replacement of vehicles and clothing, moving costs, and disaster unemployment insurance.
If you zoom in on the map above you will see the perimeters of both the Lefthand and the Calwood Fires. To make it easier to read you can remove the clutter by clicking on the box with three lines at top-right, then, Layers List. If you only want to see the fires themselves, un-click every layer except Incident Areas.
The Lefthand Fire has been mapped at 303 acres.
The fire was reported at about noon on Sunday. The DW5338 Nederland weather station south of the fire recorded 0.04″ of precipitation early Sunday morning, then the relative humidity remained above 80 percent until 1 p.m. These are not conditions that usually lead to the rapid spread of a vegetation fire. However, the area is in extreme drought, which has left the live and dead vegetation, the fuels, very dry. VERY DRY. So in spite of the small amount of rain, the desiccated fuels could still produce a fire that burned more than 300 acres. A few hundredths of an inch of rain may not have penetrated the tree canopies, leaving the ground fuels still very dry.
Those weather conditions help to explain the photo in the tweet below. If that really is ground fog in the drainage at lower-right, it’s very interesting. It is not common to see fog and a column of smoke from a 300-acre fire near each other at approximately the same elevation. Extreme drought helps to explain this.
If the weather Sunday had been hot, dry, and windy, the Lefthand Fire would still be hauling ass tonight.
Note what appears to be ground fog in the valley at lower-right.
But the weather is changing. At 7:13 p.m. Sunday the Nederland weather station recorded 53 degrees, 41 percent RH, and 5 mph winds out of the west-southwest gusting to 23.
The forecast for Ward just northwest of the fire, calls for westerly 30 mph winds Sunday night gusting to 48, with the relative humidity hovering around 50 percent. The winds will decrease somewhat on Monday to 16 mph with 27 mph gusts, still out of the west, with 22 percent RH. The conditions will be similar on Tuesday.
The short story is, unless firefighters were able to do some extraordinary work to contain the fire Sunday, we might be hearing much more about the Lefthand Fire.
Updated October 18, 2020 | 6 p.m. MDT
Map showing the proximity of the Calwood and the new Lefthand Fire.
Another fire has broken out near the front range of Colorado. The Lefthand Fire is east of Highway 72, 11 miles west-northwest of Boulder, and about a mile southeast of Ward.
The fire is in the 14,000 block of Lefthand Canyon Drive.
An evacuation has been ordered for the town of Ward and the areas north of Ward, Gold hill and the 10,000 block of Lefthand Canyon Drive. Included in the evacuation order are residents of Spring Gulch Road and Gold Lake Road.
The evacuation point is the Nederland Community Center, 750 CO-72, Nederland, CO 80466. Livestock should go to the Gilpin County Fairground 230 Norton Dr., Black Hawk CO 80422.
In addition to ground resources, a large air tanker was dispatched, followed later by the dispatch of three additional large air tankers and two very large air tankers (VLATs). Several single engine air tankers (SEATs) are also working the fire. It is not confirmed that the VLATs were actually available.
You can zoom in or out on the map below, which shows the reported location of the fire.
The fire is apparently named after the nearby Lefthand Canyon Drive and Lefthand Canyon.
We will post more information about the Lefthand Fire as it becomes available.
The Boulder Office of Emergency Management has released a preliminary list of the structures that were destroyed or damaged in the Calwood Fire. The list includes 23 homes described as a total loss. The process is ongoing and more buildings may be added as the surveys continue.
The weather on Sunday stopped the spread of the Calwood Fire which has burned 8,788 acres seven miles north-northwest of Boulder. Weather stations in the area recorded one or two hundredths of an inch of precipitation during the day while the humidity ranged in the 80s or 90s.
To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Calwood Fire including the most recent, click here.
Firefighting aircraft were hampered by the weather in the morning but were back in the air in the afternoon.
The Highway 36 camera near Altona showed rain on the lens and wet pavement Sunday morning.
The weather forecast is similar to the one for the Lefthand Fire — strong winds out of the west Sunday night at 16 mph gusting at 25 to 30 mph with the humidity in the 50s. For Monday expect decreasing west winds of 10 mph gusting to 17 while the RH drops to the low 20s. Tuesday will be about the same with slightly stronger west winds.
Updated October 18, 2020 | 7:16 a.m. MDT
The perimeter of the Calwood Fire in the map above was collected by a U.S. Forest Service fixed wing aircraft at 10:58 p.m. MDT October 17. The preliminary estimated size at that time was 8,788 acres. The red shaded areas represent intense heat.
Boulder County has published a map with evacuation information.
Updated October 17, 2020 | 6:04 p.m. MDT
Map of the Calwood Fire at 2:44 p.m. MDT Oct. 17, 2020.
A fixed wing aircraft determined at 4 p.m. Saturday that the Calwood Fire had burned 6,600 acres.
Updated October 17, 2020 | 5:41 p.m. MDT
Map of the Calwood Fire from Colorado’s Multi-Mission Aircraft, the afternoon of Oct. 17, 2020. Spot fires had reached Highway 36 to the east. Time uncertain.
Colorado’s Multi-Mission Aircraft collected the data in the map above. The time on Saturday afternoon is not certain. The crew estimates the Calwood Fire had at that time burned about 3,300 acres. Spot fires have reached Highway 36 to the east.
Boulder County has information about evacuations that have been ordered.
