2012 Colorado wildfire coverage: Part 4

Voice of the Rocky Mountain Empire

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By Jeremy P. Meyerand David Olinger The Denver Post

colorado springs» Authoritieswaited two hours after the raging Wal-do Canyon fire had breached a prede-termined evacuation trigger point be-fore ordering residents to leave, a re-view of radio traffic shows.

The result: Panicked residents hadminutes to flee the wildfire as flamesraced down the hillside into their neigh-borhood. Within an hour of the order,roads were jammed and homes were onfire. Some residents were still packing toleave when their houses began to ignite.

A Denver Post investigation into theJune26evacuationofthousandsofhomes

and the decisions leading up to it foundcity officials failed to follow a preset planasthefireragedtowardthecity.Andeventhreeweekslater,cityofficialsareunclearaboutwhathappenedandwhythenorth-ernpartof theMountainShadowsneigh-borhood didn’t get the evacuation orderuntil it was almost too late.

Colorado Springs Fire Chief Richard

Brown said he was unaware of the delayin ordering those mandatory evacua-tions but said all aspects of the fire willbe reviewed. “My concern now is howdo we learn from this? How do othercommunities faced with this learn?That is what we are about, learning andsharing what we have learned,” he said.

Some of those residents forced to

leave said the lack of timely notice putlives in jeopardy.

“There were no police, no firemen.Nobody was around except some ofthe neighbors,” said Bryan Gibson,who along with his son rescued his 86-year-old mother from their MountainShadows home. “We both got out

FIRE»14A

DELAYED EVACUATIONS The Waldo Canyon fire

Burning questions remainResidents, officials seek explanation for 2-hour lapse before implementation of preset plan

By Babak Dehghanpishehand Liz Sly The Washington Post

antakya, turkey» Syrian rebelsseized control of several critical bor-der crossings Thursday as thousandsof people fled the escalating violencein the capital, offering fresh evidencethat the regime led by PresidentBashar Assad is starting to unravel.

Street fighting stretched into a fifthday in Damascus, with governmentsoldiers deploying snipers on roof-tops and helicopter gunships in flash-point neighborhoods.

More than 20,000 people were re-ported to have fled into neighboringLebanon. Activist groups said morethan 55 people were killed in Damas-cus and its suburbs a day after abombing in the heart of the city killedthree of Assad’s senior advisers.

With a veto by Russia and China of aU.N. Security Council resolution thatwould have imposed sanctions on Syriaeffectively heralding an end to diplo-

SYRIA»20A

CRISIS IN SYRIA

Border posts fall to rebels

ByMonte Whaley The Denver Post

lasalle» Colorado farmers alreadyplagued by a debilitating drought arenow fighting the arrival of crop-eatinginsectswholikethehot,dryweather thathas settled over the state and elsewhere.

“It’s to the point where we just feelbeat up,” said Harry Strohauer, whohas already let 500 acres of corn on his3,500-acre Weld County spread die toconserve water.

Grasshoppers, an annual threat tocorn and other plants, are back thisyear in huge numbers in some areas of

Colorado, say agriculture experts.That includes Strohauer’s farm,

which also grows potatoes for local re-tailers. On Thursday, as Strohauerwalked down a row of dying cornstalks, swarms of grasshoppers leapedaround his head after tearing holesthrough what used to be a viable crop.In another field, the pests have gnawedentire rows of corn to the ground.

Strohauer said he and other farmerswho are watching their once greenfields fade away face the same priceydilemma.

PESTS»12A

FARMS’PLAGUESwarming bugs feast on Weld’s dry crops

Farmer Harry Strohauer walks in one of his cornfields Thursday near LaSalle that is damaged from thousands of grasshoppers. RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post

“The mild winter didn’t control the pests.”Ron Meyer, Colorado State University extension agent

Members of a jihadist group trainThursday near Aleppo, Syria. BulentKilic, AFP/Getty Images

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about 10 minutes before it got toour house. If we hadn’t shownup, my mother would have diedin the fire.”

Despite the destruction ofhomes, the death of a couple intheir 70s and the decimation ofthe mountain landscape, Colo-rado Springs got lucky, saidThomas Cova, a University ofUtah professor who studiesevacuations from wildfires.

“To get (thousands of) peo-ple out in such short time withno injuries is amazing,” he said.“If a whole bunch of peoplewould have died, this wouldhave been a far better questionabout what went wrong. Itwasn’t good that they had to goinstantly. They could havegone about it more sanely. Butthey were able to do it.”

Colorado Springs Mayor SteveBach acknowledged the closecall in a meeting Wednesdaywith the City Council to discusslessons learned from the fire.“Fortunately no one was injuredin that evacuation,” Bach said.“It could have been a lot worse.”

Early in the attack of the fire,managers created a detailed listof “management action points”— better known as “triggerpoints” — around the fire, ac-cording to Rich Harvey, inci-dent commander for the Type 1team that led the firefight.

Trigger points determine de-cisions and actions that firemanagers will take when thefire reaches those areas, he said.

“Queens Canyon was a trig-ger point,” Harvey said. “If thefire becomes established inthere, there is no good contain-ment, no good place for makinga stand between RampartRange Road and ColoradoSprings. ... There are no roads,no trails, no natural barriers.That was obvious to us.”

Harvey did not know why theevacuation order failed to beannounced when the fire beganburning in Queens Canyon.

Brown said once the firecomes into city property or cityproperty is in the way of an on-coming fire, the decision toevacuate comes to him.

But he could not answer why ittook two hours to issue the order.

“I can’t speak factually tothat,” he said.

According to radio traffic, afirefighter at 2:27 p.m. reportedthe fire had jumped RampartRange Road and was in QueensCanyon. “It’s starting to dropdown into the canyon,” said thefirefighter,whoidentifiedhimselfas“Murphy”andwasstandingontop of Queens Canyon Quarry.

Over the next several minutes,firefighters from different van-tage points described the fire be-havior as it crept into the canyon.

By 2:40 p.m., Murphy report-ed “burning material rollingdown into the canyon. So thefire is getting down into thebottom of the canyon. Realheavy fire activity on the west-ern lip of the canyon.”

Queens Canyon is a drainagethat leads to a mountainsidequarry above the city, uphillfrom the Mountain Shadowsneighborhood.

Half of the Mountain Shad-ows south of Chuckwagon Road

FIRE«FROM 1A

had been on mandatory evacua-tion since June 23.

At 1:44 p.m. June 26, thenorthern half of the subdivisionwent on “pre-evacuation no-tice” — meaning residents wereadvised to have valuablespacked and be ready to go.

Among the 345 homes thatburned in Mountain Shadows,145 were in the northern area ofthe subdivision.

Harvey said several factorsgo into deciding which neigh-borhoods to evacuate: topogra-phy, fire behavior, wind direc-tion, types of assets in the wayand how many police officersare available to protect the area.

“You don’t want to be slow andyou don’t want to be evacuatingstuff you don’t need,” he said. “Ifthe fire had stayed on RampartRange, we would be having a dif-ferent conversation.”

At 4:13 p.m., Colorado SpringsFire Department Capt. SteveRiker reported flames on theridge above Mountain Shadowsand asked Fire Battalion ChiefTed Collas, “We did do manda-tory evacuations ... you said?”

“Negative,” Collas said. “ Iwill confirm that and make sureit is happening.”

At the same time, federal, cityand county officials gatheredfor a regularly scheduled newsconference.

Denver CBS4 TV reporterRick Sallinger asked Harveyabout the consequences of thefire getting into Queens Canyon.

“That’s a good question and atough answer,” Harvey said.

Just then, at 4:25 p.m., MayorBach interrupted Harvey to an-nouncetheevacuationof therestofMountainShadowsupthroughthe Peregrine neighborhood.

Ted Stefani didn’t hear thewarning. He was already pack-ing his car after seeing flamescoming down the hill toward

his home on Charing Court.“We didn’t need the police to

tell us at that point,” said Stefani,whose home was destroyed.

In Mountain Shadows, somehomeowners waited for evacua-tion orders while others becamealarmed when smoke obscuredthe sun and decided to leave.

Bryan Gibson, whose elderlymother was in their house at5735 Linger Way, said she calledhim in a panic about the fire.But when he and his son arrivedto get her out, they found hercalmly sitting on a couch talk-ing on the phone.

“What are you doing?” heasked. “The fire’s coming downthe hill.”

“No, it’s not,” she said.“Yes, it is,” he insisted.“It would be on the TV,” she

said.He got his mother into his car

and pointed her toward his of-fice a few minutes away. Hismother rarely drives, but “inthis case, she had to,” he said.

On Linger Way, where 15 ofthe 19 houses would be de-stroyed, neighborhood boys randoor to door, banging on doorsand ringing doorbells. Theyfound one couple taking an af-ternoon nap. “They would haveperished too, if the boys hadn’trung their bell,” Gibson said.“Those boys were heroes.”

In the rush to evacuate, Gib-son regrets leaving behindthings with sentimental value:his late father’s golf clubs andfishing tackle box, “the thingsthat gave him joy.” His daugh-ter’s artwork. His son’s trophies.

“I think I was thinkingwrong,” he said. “I would give athousand dollars to have fivemore minutes in that house.”

Not far away, on RossmereStreet, a neighbor watched Wil-liam Everett pull into his garageas other neighbors were leaving.

Everett and his wife, Barbara,died in the fire, the only fatalities.

Stephen Gandy went upRossmere Street with his cam-era, taking photos of the firethat seemed to be buildingthroughout the afternoon.When he saw a flame jump ontothe ridge, he bolted downhill to-ward his home, which wouldsoon be destroyed.

“Jan,” he told his girlfriend,“we need to go now.”

They were keenly aware of thedanger. Each night since the fireerupted, Jan Wilson, a neonatalnursepractitioner,andGandysettheir alarm clock to go off everytwo hours until dawn. They tookturns getting up and looking outthewindowforsignsofawildfire.

As they escaped about 4:30p.m., they got a call on theircellphones to leave and sawfirefighters driving in to tellpeople to evacuate.

“The frightening part waspeople were coming in,” Wil-son said. “People coming backto Mountain Shadows werebumper to bumper, trying to getto their homes. Driving on theshoulder. Making turns to theright from the left-hand lane.”

Sue Harrington, whose houseon Green Valley Heights sur-vived while others around herburned to the ground, waswatching the news conferenceand was struck by how calm of-ficials seemed.

“I was at my door and the firewas coming down into FlyingW Ranch,” she said.

She wonders why she and herneighbors didn’t get an evacua-tion order sooner. “We all livein Colorado. We know how fastthe wind changes,” she said.“How come nobody thoughtabout that? It doesn’t take arocket scientist to know that.”

Council president ScottHente, whose Mountain Shad-ows home was damaged in thefire, said the city should reviewits evacuation procedures.

“One of the things we are go-ing to look at very, very stronglyis when do you evacuate in cer-tain conditions and what arethe trigger points,” he said. “Atwhat point do you risk angeringyour constituents to try to keepthem safe? Those are all validquestions, and I don’t know theanswers, which is why we aregoing to look at them.”

Map area

ColoradoSprings

24

25

25

Garden ofthe Gods Road

Flying W Ranch Cen

ten

nia

l Blv

d.

Source: City of Colorado Springs; USGS; The Denver Post

Evacuations delayed Authorities waited two hours after the Waldo Canyon fire breached a predetermined trigger point for evacuations before ordering residents to leave the north part of the Mountain Shadows neighborhood. The south part had been evacuated three days earlier.

N1⁄2 mile

Waldo Canyon firefinal perimeter

Pike National Forest

mountainshadows

PEREGRINE

pinonvalley

C O L O R A D OS P R I N G S

Chuckwagon Road

Rampart

Range Road

Queens Canyon

June 26, 2:27 p.m. Fire reported to have jumped Rampart Range Road and entered Queens Canyon

June 26, 4:11 p.m.Flames spotted on ridge above Mountain Shadows neighborhood

June 23, 3:17 p.m. Mountain Shadows south of Chuckwagon Road evacuated

June 26, 4:25 p.m. Colorado Springs mayor announces evacuation of all of Mountain Shadows north through the Peregrine neighborhood.

Chad Gibson watches flames approach his home in Colorado Springs. Photo courtesy Bryan Gibson

How the WaldoCanyon fire unfoldedSaturday, June 23Noon: Fire reported in WaldoCanyon, west of ColoradoSprings. Command team setstrigger points for evacuation,including if fire is “established inQueens Canyon.”3:17 p.m.Mandatory evacuationordered for Mountain Shadowsneighborhood south of Chuck-wagon Road.Tuesday, June 261:44 p.m. Northern MountainShadows placed on “pre-evacua-tion notice.”2:27 p.m. Firefighter reports firedropping into Queens Canyon.2:30 p.m. A different firefightersees “flare-ups” on western rimof Queens Canyon.2:40 p.m. Firefighter reports“burning material rolling downinto the canyon. ... Heavy fireactivity on the western lip of thecanyon.”3:12 p.m. Firefighter at top ofQueens Quarry reports heavy,cold ash falling3:23 p.m. Air-attack pilots con-firm fire is “all the way at thebottom of Queens.”3:32 p.m. Firefighter says fire is“crowning downhill and startingto crown uphill Queens Canyon. Ican see flames coming back upon the east side.”3:33 p.m. Colorado Springs FireCapt. Steve Riker reports“strange smoke beyond the eastside of ravine. We have heavyflames coming down from thewest coming into the canyon.”4:11 p.m. Firefighter announces:“All units. I have fire on theridge. It’s on the east side of themost east-facing ridge. We needto put that plan in place.”4:13 p.m. Firefighter: “It’s a veryfast moving crown fire that’sstarting to come down the ridgea little bit. Still about a third ofthe way up.”4:13 p.m. Riker: “We did do man-datory evacuations ... you said?4:13 p.m. Battalion Chief TedCollas: “Negative. I will confirmthat and make sure it is happen-ing.”4:25 p.m.Mayor Steve Bach an-nounces evacuation of all ofMountain Shadows

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REPUBLICANNATIONAL CONVENTION

Romney’sroadmaptowinningColoradoHis campaign aims toavoid social potholesand hit fiscal solutions.

By Allison Sherry The Denver Post

tampa, fla.» After accepting hisparty’s nomination Thursday at theRepublican National Convention, MittRomney’s campaign will narrow its fo-cus in Colorado — rallying conserva-tives, touting energy independenceand eschewing social-conservativebranding, according to interviews withRomney strategists and Colorado op-eratives.

So far, Romney’s approach to win-ning the pivotal swing state has puz-zled pundits because his first twopost-primary stops were in the sparse-ly populated red areas of Craig andFort Lupton. He didn’t traverse to apurple or a blue voter area; he didn’t goafter the ever-elusive suburban-wom-en vote.

But those visits — along with speech-es in Grand Junction and Golden —were likely a harbinger of how Romneywill operate in the coming 68 days.

He will go to big and small places,delivering speeches about jobs, the na-tional debt and how energy indepen-dence leads Colorado out of its 8.3 per-cent unemployment rate.

“He will have to get the Republicanvote out, get the base out to go to thepolls,” said Colorado’s state Attorney

RNC»16A

RYAN VOWSTURNAROUNDRepublican vice presidentialcandidate Paul Ryan welcomed“the calling of my generation”to help lead the country intough times. »17A

Security. Some people, fromvisitors to downtown businessowners, wonder whether theconvention security is all a littletoo much. »18A

HIGH PARK FIRE

Insurers face criticismHomeowners: O≠ers falling far short of expected levelsBy Steve Raabe The Denver Post

fort collins» Residents whosehomes burned in the High Park wild-fire packed a Larimer County meet-ing Wednesday night to criticize theway their claims are being handledby insurance companies.

Homeowners, some in tears and

with breaking voices, complainedthat insurance-settlement offers arefalling far short of expected levels.

People in the crowd of about 130complained of depreciated insur-ance-settlement offers that fail tocover rebuilding costs, and difficultyin getting full reimbursement forhome contents lost in fires.

A particular aggravation of somespeakers was the need to exhaustive-ly document lost personal posses-sions during an emotionally chal-lenging time.

“Being required to list all personalcontents is inhumane after a disasterof this magnitude,” said Dale Snyder,

FIRE»11A

CHECK OF VOTER ELIGIBILITY

88% of those in Colo. run through federal database are U.S. citizensBy Sara Burnett The Denver Post

About 88 percent of the approxi-mately 1,400 suspected noncitizensrun through a federal database by theColorado secretary of state’s officewere determined to be U.S. citizens— and are eligible to vote.

The Department of Homeland Se-curity is continuing to review the re-

maining approximately 168 people todetermine whether any of them alsoare citizens, said Michael Hagihara,voter registration manager for thesecretary of state’s office.

The results of the checks so farwere released during a public hear-ing Wednesday on how Secretary ofState Scott Gessler’s office will moveforward with determining whether

anyone still suspected of being anoncitizen should be removed fromColorado’s voter rolls.

That process could begin as earlyas next week. Gessler’s office is pro-posing that either he or his deputysecretary of state would preside overa hearing on each case. They alsowould make the final judgment as towhether the person may legally cast a

ballot — a proposal critics called“alarming.”

Martha Tierney, an attorney whorepresents the Colorado DemocraticParty, noted that the number of vot-ers still in question equals less thanone-thousandth of 1 percent of Colo-rado’s approximately 3.5 million reg-istered voters. She suggested the Re-

GESSLER»15A

ISAAC: LOTS OF WATER,BUT LOSING STEAM » nation, 19A

HOME, SQUEEZE HOME

Air Force Reserve Lt. Col. Herb Rose shares hugs with his children — from left, Sophia, 4, Colton, 8, andOakLeigh, 5 — at Sage Canyon Elementary in Castle Rock on Wednesday. Students had gathered in thegym, thinking they were finding out the winner of a raffle. The Rose children were then picked to unwrap

a very large box. What a gift it was: When Rose, stationed in Qatar since January, popped out, his kids rushed him.“I thought it was going to be a bouncy castle,” Colton said, “but this is better.” »8A Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post

About the blazeIgnited June 9 by a lightning strike, itwas contained by June 30. It was thesecond-largest wildfire in recordedColorado history by area burned,after the Hayman Fire of 2002. Oneperson was killed in the fire.Location: 15mileswest of Fort CollinsAcres burned: 87,250Buildings destroyed or damaged: 259

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who lost his Rist Canyon homeduring the June fire. “It’s ex-tremely painful and time con-suming, to say the least.”Other homeowners said de-

preciated payments for de-stroyed homesmake rebuildingdifficult or impossible.“If they feel the need to de-

preciate my policy by thatamount, then why did they ac-cept my premium (payment)for that value?” said Trish Gar-ner, who lost her Rist Canyonhome.In many cases, insurers offer

settlement amounts based on apercentage of replacementcosts. The full value of the poli-cy is not paid until structuresare rebuilt and possessions arereplaced.Insurance-industry represen-

tatives noted that companiesoperate within the law and fol-low standard practices by re-quiring an accounting of costsand completion of rebuilding

FIRE«FROM 1A

before full reimbursement ismade.State Rep. Claire Levy, D-

Boulder, garnered applausefrom the crowd when she saidshewill introduce legislation inthe 2013 session to offer moreprotection to homeowners intheir dealings with insurers.The legislation would direct

insurers to certify that replace-ment costs accurately reflectlocal construction costs aswellas requiring companies to offerat least partial payments onpersonal contents without theneed for itemization.Some citizens are calling for

Colorado to pass a law thatwould require insurers to payupfront the full face value ofpolicies in the event of a totalloss, without depreciation andholdbacks.So-called “valued policy

laws” are in effect in 19 states.Most of those states mandatefull reimbursement for loststructures but still requireitemized lists for content re-placement.Insurers are listening to

homeowner concerns but are

wary about proposals thatcould increase premiums andencourage fraud, said CaroleWalker, executive director ofthe Rocky Mountain InsuranceInformationAssociation, an in-dustry trade group.Colorado state Rep. John

Kefalas, D-FortCollins, has saidthat while he is not endorsing avalued-policy law, he sees theneed for changes that wouldbring more consistency to in-surance policies and claims.“They’ve been through so

muchanguish fromthe fires, andnow there seems to be a lot ofhassles that people are goingthrough,” Kefalas said. “Maybeweneed togetmoreconsistencyinhowthese thingsarehandled.”Walker said the history of val-

ued-policy laws shows thathomeowners in areas with lowrisk of wildfires or other natu-ral disasters end up payinghigher premiums for the bene-fit of the minority living inhigh-risk areas.

Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948,[email protected] ortwitter.com/steveraabedp

Larimer County residents thanked Dale Snyder, center, with a round of applause for initiatinga meeting that was held at the Larimer County Courthouse onWednesday night. Snyder losthis home to fire June 11. Victims of this summer’s fires complained of how hard it has been tobe compensated by insurance companies after having lost homes during a public meetingWednesday night. Karl Gehring, The Denver Post

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