Fourth Anniversary of Waldo Canyon Fire Remembered

ago tonight, manitou springs resembled a ghost town… evacuated as more resources poured in to fight the waldo canyon fire. krdo newschannel 13’s scott harrison spoke with several people who were affected by the early hours of the fire, responded to it… and hopefully learned from one of the worst disasters we’ll ever see. an omen of what was to come… reports of something burning in waldo canyon, the night before the fire. ”we had people within 70 feet of where the point of ignition was later determined to be. there was no fire left when we got there that night. but it returned with a vengeance the next day. as the smoke plume began to build … sharon engle’s house was in the line of fire. but she was out of town. ”and then we find out later on that the fire itself had actually the pattern of a hand over eagle lake, and most of it was preserved and saved.” el paso county responded early on, and quickly realized it didn’t have everything it needed. ”we didn’t have mechanized wildland fire crews. we didn’t have people who had the ability to jump into a bulldozer or jump into a grader and clear swaths for firefighting purposes.” the county is now training a crew of 12 for that kind of work. ”this is the waldo canyon trailhead, and it’s still closed because of damage from the fire. june of 2012 was an especially tense time here in southern colorado. there had already been the springer fire near the park county-teller county line, and at least a dozen arson fires had been set in teller county and around woodland park.” the fire forced the closure of highway 24 through ute pass… and threatened manitou springs’ population of five-thousand. ”i was up on the west end of town and saw live embers fall down on that part of town. that really put the fear of god in me because it became that close to having it come through manitou springs.” most of those who were here when it happened, are determined to prevent it from happening again. that’s the main lesson learned. in el paso county–scott harrison, krdo newschannel 13. authorities say the fire gave them valuable experience, and increased the focus on public education. the city of fountain