The mountains northwest of Denver were set afire Monday morning as a fast-moving wildfire quickly exploded sending residents fleeing. The quickly expanding Fourmile Canyon Fire burned throughout the night last night and one resident took astounding time lapse video of the burning.
- Watch the time lapse video from Stuart O'Steen below
The area of the fire just northwest of the Denver area city of Boulder is rugged terrain but a popular place to live for those seeking to be closer to nature. Wildfires in these mountain areas are a common hazard but with dry conditions, ample fuel and winds feeding flames fires get out of hand quickly.
Yesterday’s blaze started under what was a cloudless sky in the Centennial State and soon mushroomed to 3,500 acres. More than 3,000 residents fled the quickly advancing flames and firefighters did their best to save what homes they could.
According to the National Forest Service, more than 175 firefighters with three hotshot crews, dozens of pieces of ground equipment and seven air tankers are fighting the blaze.
- Get the latest on the Fourmile Canyon Fire from the Denver Weather Examiner
- Slideshow: Fourmile Canyon Fire burns thousands of acres in Colorado mountains
From nearby Flagstaff Mountain south of the fire area, onlookers watches with amazement as the smoke plume billowed across the mountains and plains. The video below was captured by Stuart O'Steen of Boulder, Colorado and compresses the 30-minute period from 8:00pm to 8:30pm into 40 seconds. Mr. O'Steen has generously provided us rights to show it. He reserves all of his rights to the material under US and international copyright law.
Comments
Amazing video. There are some resources for getting the latest on the fire including radio scanner feeds and maps at http://allhazards.blogspot.com/2010/09/colorado-wild-fire-resources.html
Scarily beautiful. You can the lights from emergency vehicles moving on the mountain in the foreground.
We can smell the smoke clear out in Douglas County. :(
Can anyone comment on the vantage point from which this video was taken? We have several family members with houses around the Gold Hill, Dixon Road and Sunshine Canyon Roads and would really like to know. Thank you so very much for sharing this video. It speaks beyond words...
The video was shot from Flagstaff Mountain which is south of the fire area. You can view a good map of the perimeter of the fire here: http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2119/
Our hearts go out...
That is great stuff. I saw there was one shot in the daytime too: http://www.examiner.com/weather-in-denver/explosion-of-fourmile-canyon-f...
Really it's very awful video thanks for sharing it
great video
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