The Colorado State Forest Service recommends removing all leaves, needles and other debris from decks, roofs and gutters as well as creating a defensible space by reducing fuels around homes. One of the things that we harp on all the time is mitigation and that's working both with your own home and with your neighbors in your community because there's certain things you can do to protect your home,' he said. 'If you live in the WUI, you need to understand that you live in a higher risk area than other people in the community. for earthquakes and New Orleans for hurricanes. Royal said living in a WUI is comparable to living in other cities prone to natural disasters, like L.A. That's often defined as where human development meets wildland areas. In this 2012 photo, firefighters form a fire line at the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado Springs.Ĭolorado Springs has roughly 35,000 homes in the wildland urban interface, or WUI. At its height, over 30,000 people were evacuated from the Pikes Peak region. By the time it was fully contained, the fire had burned just over 18,000 acres and caused more than $352.6 million in damage. Smoke from the Waldo Canyon fire was first reported on Jbut it wasn't located until the next day. When it was really going to town, it changed directions three or four times and there was a point where we were thinking about Manitou and Green Mountain Falls, that whole area, being impacted like we saw with Mountain Shadows,' he said. 'That fire changed directions over those initial days. The nearby towns of Green Mountain Falls and Manitou Springs were spared, mostly because of weather, Royal said. 'There was a point on Saturday, the 23rd, that it had made a run into Cedar Heights if we hadn't been able to have been there all day long working, we would've lost houses up there,' he said. More than 30,000 were displaced by the fire at the time, including thousands who frantically packed up belongings the night after it barreled into neighborhoods in the foothills west and north of Colorado's second-largest city. (AP Photo/John Wark) This aerial photo taken on June 27, 2012, shows burned homes in the Mountain Shadows residential area of Colorado Springs, Colo., that were destroyed by the Waldo Canyon wildfire. He said the first six days of the fire were nonstop for firefighters. 'As soon as I saw it, I knew it was gonna be a bad deal.' It was a really tight column that was going straight up,' Royal said. 'I looked up and it was right in front of me. Investigators say the point of origin was within three miles of the Waldo Canyon Trailhead off Highway 24, west of Colorado Springs.Īt the time, current Colorado Springs Fire Chief Randy Royal was responding to a call in Garden of the Gods when reports came in about smoke on the side of the mountain. Officials determined it was human-caused, but the investigation into the details of the Waldo Canyon fire is still open. That title is now held by last year's Marshall fire in Boulder County. Two people died and 346 homes were destroyed.Īt the time, it had become the most destructive wildfire in state history, surpassed the following year by the Black Forest fire. Ten years ago, the Waldo Canyon fire started near Colorado Springs and within days had torn through the Mountain Shadows neighborhood on the west side of the city and the hills behind it.

Ten years later a space in time