2024 Colorado Wildfires

BY ELLA SLUPIK

This summer, the weather was nothing but hot and dry. There were many days where the weather spiked above 100 degrees fahrenheit with no rain for days. These are the perfect conditions for wildfires to ignite, and just that happened not once, but three times in the state of Colorado this summer. 

The largest of these three fires was the Alexander Mountain Fire. Near the town of Loveland, this fire started on July 29th and burned over 9,668 acres, or about 15 miles. Unfortunately, over 50 structures were burnt to the ground, 26 of them being houses. At least four additional houses were damaged, but not destroyed. With the massive size of this fire, there were once 625 firefighters all together fighting it at one time, and with their help, the Alexander Mountain Fire is now 100% contained.

The second largest fire was the Stone Canyon Fire at 1,557 acres or about 2.5 miles. While this one was much smaller that the Alexander Mountain Fire, it still did plenty of damage, destroying 5 structures and, unfortunately, this fire resulted in one casualty. Forensics teams are struggling to figure out exactly who it was, due to the fire changing the shape of the bones. The Stone Canyon fire started on July 30th near the beloved town of Lyons, Colorado. Luckily, this fire is now 100% contained and the people are safely moved back into their homes.

The final, and smallest of the fires was the Quarry Fire in Jefferson County which is said to be caused by humans on July 30th. The Quarry Fire only burned about a mile at around 579 acres, and luckily, no structures were harmed, and no lives were lost. 

With temperatures constantly rising, and rain rarely falling, it is not uncommon for wildfires to start. And while this is sad, there is unfortunately nothing we can do to stop it. But with the help of our firefighters and flame retardant chemicals, we can do whatever we can to stop the flames from spreading too far. 

Cites –

https://coloradosun.com

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