July 6, 2012 10:39 am
Here’s What $110 Million in Fire Damage Looks Like
More than 18,000 acres burned in Waldo Canyon. Photo: NASA
The Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado was the most destructive in the state’s history.
In 12 days, it t burned 18,247 acres.
It ate through 346 homes, doing $110 million in damage.
On July 4, a NASA satellite took the image above. The red is vegetation, captured with visible and infrared light. The brightest red is unburned forest. The brown is the land that the fire burned.
The Denver Post reports:
The list of lost homes also reveals the vicissitudes of a wildfire. On some neighborhood streets, only one house was lost. On a stretch of Majestic Drive, 74 consecutive houses burned.
“I keep hearing words like ‘epic,’ ‘historic,’ ‘unprecedented.’ I don’t think that’s an exaggeration,” said Carole Walker, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association. “2012 is the year everyone’s going to remember.”
More from Smithsonian.com:
Climate Change Means More Wildfires in the West
Devastating Colorado Wildfires Most Recent in Decades-Long Surge
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This is absolutely awful for all those affected. It makes me sad to see so much devastation in the west. On a side note, however, some mention needs to be made that there have been other devastating fires in the Rocky Mountain region as well that just haven’t had as much media time as Colorado. New Mexico’s Little Bear fire destroyed 80,000 acres and 250 homes, and the Gila fire in New Mexico is also unprecedented and the state’s largest in history, destroying over 350,000 acres so far. New Mexico is still part of the United States and is worth some mention as well.
Comment by Terry — July 8, 2012 @ 8:54 am
Looks like it’s time for everybody, everywhere to rethink landscaping and living in the woods. The California fire code is just the beginning.
Comment by Ann Deluty — July 8, 2012 @ 9:15 am
amazing when you look at the top right – the Air Force airfield give perspective to the size of the fire.
Comment by Mac — July 8, 2012 @ 11:48 am
I understand that they want to live in the forests & on mountains, but those hills were not put there for the purpose of suburban blight. We, as humans, are slowly destroying this planet because we are lazy and selfish. Nothing would be more unattractive than to look onto a hill or mountainside and see a bunch of cheesy houses marring the view.
Comment by Wendy — July 8, 2012 @ 12:12 pm
Colorado is a powderkeg with horrendous stands of beetle-killed trees. Currently is raining but I don’t know how much of the state is getting rain. I know there are reports of land and rockfall in the High Fire area that burned at much the same time as Waldo. I hope not but all we need is a bit of drying out and well be ready to go again.
Comment by Margaret Johnson — July 8, 2012 @ 10:00 pm
If you build your home in the middle of a dry forest, it’s only a matter of time before it will look like an “Apache job” — nothing standing but the chimney.
Comment by Kerry Fitzpatrick — July 9, 2012 @ 7:34 am