Helicopters battle multiple Colorado wildfires
AccuWeather's Tony Laubach reported live from a reservoir where helicopters were gathering water to fight multiple wildfires in the Front Range on Aug. 1.
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00:00Well, fires in Colorado have turned deadly, as three fires are burning along the front
00:05range between Denver and Fort Collins.
00:07For the latest, we bring in AccuWeather Meteorologist Tony Laubach, and Tony, I know you've been
00:12getting some pretty compelling footage of some of the smoke plumes near you over the
00:15past few days.
00:17Yeah, Jeff, it has been hitting a little close to home.
00:22As you know, I live here in northern Colorado, I'm about 20 miles from both the Alexander
00:27Mountain Fire and the Stone Canyon Fire near Lyons.
00:33Those are blowing smoke across northern Colorado, but we're here in Denver, southwest Denver
00:37to be exact.
00:38Behind me you see Chatfield Reservoir.
00:40This is where a lot of the air support is getting their ammunition to fight the fire
00:45southwest of Denver, the Quarry Fire.
00:47We'll show you some of that video here of the choppers that are basically making circles
00:52from the fire to here at Chatfield.
00:54They dip in, they grab all their water, fill up as much as they can, and then they swing
00:58around the fire about five or so miles to the west of here, so making some very quick
01:02trips.
01:03Sometimes we're seeing as many as two to three helicopters making these rounds here within
01:06about a 10 or 15 minute period of time, so fortunately very close proximity to the fire,
01:11which is allowing these crews to fight this particular fire.
01:15We've been seeing a couple of planes in the area as well.
01:17Those have actually moved to area airports to refuel, and then they'll get back into
01:22action here over the next hour or so.
01:24As Jeff mentioned, we've got multiple fires in the vicinity here.
01:27We're going to show you the map here.
01:29There are three active fires, there are four on the map, because the Lakeshore Fire that
01:33is just outside of Boulder has been 100% contained.
01:37That did not grow more than six acres, so that is the good news, but when you combine
01:40everything, we're sitting under about 10,000 acres burning along the Colorado Front Range
01:44between Denver and Fort Collins.
01:46That Alexander Fire, you've been seeing footage from that all week, at 7,600 plus acres.
01:51That one is the largest fire right now, burning in northern Colorado, and that one again
01:55is active since Monday.
01:57The Stone Canyon Fire, that has been the fatal one.
01:59We have one fatality reported, as they found the remains in one of the buildings that were
02:03destroyed, so we did have several destroyed structures with that particular fire.
02:07That one, a smaller fire, only just over 1,500 acres.
02:11We have had several firefighters that have been taken to area hospitals, mainly for heat
02:14exhaustion.
02:15That has been one of the key enemies, so to speak, for the fires here, has been the heat,
02:20the dry heat, and you hear us talking about that all the time, the dry heat in Colorado,
02:24which unfortunately is fueling the fires.
02:26And Jeff, from meteorologist to meteorologist, a little interesting tidbit here.
02:29If you remember last year, last year Colorado set a record as one of the most prolific tornado
02:34seasons on record, due to the fact that we had exceptional, almost record rains, record
02:39moisture in the area.
02:41This year, a complete opposite.
02:43We haven't seen much in the way of any kind of severe weather season, because it's been
02:46so dry, and as a result, you get an active fire season, and that's what we've seen already
02:50this week.
02:51Yeah, it's always an interesting thing there.
02:54One or the other.
02:55Tony, thank you so much for that report.
02:56Be safe, and we're glad that at least your immediate area is okay, despite some scary
03:00times not far on the horizon.