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Yay, Essie!!!!

i got confirmation yesterday that my deceased (in April, at 45 years young, one year post-retirement) Command Chief's home survived. The neighbor's houses all burned, but the...

High Park, Waldo, and Black Forest simply showed the rest of the nation (world?) the true spirit of the people of Colorado. Over and over I hear how visitors are shocked and pleased by the community...

So, good news and bad news tonight. The destroyed and partially destroyed count keeps going up, but the containment is now 55%. Yay! Realizing "contained" definitely doesn't mean "out," it is...

Inciweb is updated usually only once or twice each day, but does hold all the official information for all major/named fires across the nation. It's usually Incident Command that updates. Sometimes...

Yes, current count is 419 destroyed, 15 partial.

More fires sparked today. MAFFS was on standby. In fact, the crews were on board, strapped in and APUs were running waiting for launch orders. ...

drmgncolor, thank you! It is definitely not necessary, but we'll have to get together for fun :)

Bear with me, there have been a LOT of changes in my 2-person office over the past 18 hours. None...

Bluey, I was responding to you saying the mountain fires just blow up.

Texas is a place very familiar to MAFFS. Frankly, they hate flying down there because it is too flat and they can't hide...

This isn't technically a "mountain fire" as the Black Forest is on the leading edge of the plains. It literally is a forest on the plains with very little undulation in the land (as compared to the...

The official word was because of winds. They were concerned about one dry thunderstorm producing a downdraft microburst. No complaints about them being careful with our guys!

Highway 50 reopens...

Winds are high or erratic enough to ground us.

Kind of crazy right now...

Please keep in mind 5% is good news and improvement, but it can also fall quickly with the weather over the next few...

All aerial operations are on hold. Our guys are sitting on the ground at JeffCo and don't know why. News chopper is telling news channels that its because they aren't needed, but that isn't...

WMW, my planes are recharging and refueling a JEFFCO. The VLAT and LAT are recharging and refueling at Pueblo. That's why their flight patterns are so different.

My planes are overnighting at...

The DC-10 is a civilian contractor. MAFFS is strictly C-130s (the green-gray 4 turbo-prop planes with big orange numbers). Just an FYI :)

They are really trying to attack this thing because of...

Mandatory evacuations have been expanded within the last...I think 45 minutes. I didn't look at the clock. The fire hasn't jumped 83, but it looks and sounds nasty. They're very worried about...

I may be home celebrating my son's 7th birthday today, and I may have snuck out for a very short, very fast run while I had a chance, but my phone has been ringing off the hook since about 5:30 this...

All of you in any portion of the evacuation zones, please just be very aware and careful! Water your roofs, but also don't hesitate to leave.

I cannot express enough just how worried I am about...

Flying W says they still have room, too. The evacuation boundaries just expanded again (pre-evac).

The Community Center is still standing, but I also heard about Rockin B. I am just hesitant...

Yes. And she is far from the first or only one.

MAFFS landed and finalize the day about an hour ago. I have been chatting with our chief flight engineer. He said it was a good day that went...

The VLAT was flying over the Royal Gorge Fire last night and today, they've now joined my aircraft in Black Forest. They're recharging in Pueblo. My planes are recharging at JeffCo.
The DC-10 can...

My Wing and Maintenance Group Commanders are evacuated. A few of the guys flying are evacuated and flying over their homes. We have more than a handful of people deployed to SW Asia who are...

Douglas County is in pre-evacuation. Colorado Springs has updated the pre-evacuation all the way West to I-25. Mandatory evacuations are as far South as Highway 83 where Pikes Peak Community...

The holding facility is okay last I heard, but I will find out for sure after a bit. I have a lot of paperwork and orders to go pull so it could take a while.

Things are kind of bleak this...

Thanks, FalseImpression. It's just unbelievable around here right now!

New evacuations in Black Forest. The fire is actively growing to the East. Falcon should be safe tonight, but I'd be...

Actually, this is the fastest MAFFS has ever ever called up in its 40 years! Won't help some, but will protect hundreds of thousands of others as we build a perimeter.

The Territorial Prison has...

Okay, now that it's been released publicly I can say we got the alert status call a few hours ago (hence the reason I disappeared for a while) and will be given a launch order possibly as soon as...