Fire season

It's a sad day in Colorado Springs.  Another wildfire is consuming our beautiful area.  This one is much closer to us than the 2012 Waldo Canyon fire.  It seems we will be safe, as the Black Forest Fire is still several miles away and heading away from our part of town.  It is still way too close to home.  Yesterday afternoon, just as the fire began, my boys were evacuated from Cathedral Pines in Black Forest, where they were attending Cub Scout Day Camp.  Just after the scouts cleared out, firefighters demanded that the stake leaders stop collecting coolers and tents and gear and leave immediately.  That entire area burned to the ground shortly afterward.  Now a huge portion of our stake has been evacuated.

Here is a map of the mandatory evacuation as of today (Wednesday) at 4:00.  The voluntary evacuation zone is to the west and a little bit south of the red border. I'm sick to my stomach as I think of the homes that have been burned, and the thousands more that are threatened.  At this time 5,700 homes are in the mandatory zone.

These photos were taken by people living in my ward (Explorer Park) boundaries and those of the adjacent ward (Cordera).

These photos are from a local news site, and are closer to the fire itself:

Prayers for Black Forest and Colorado Springs.
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Thursday afternoon update: 15,000 acres burned; 360 homes lost (about the number in the Waldo Canyon fire); 13,000 homes in evacuation areas; 38,000 people affected.

Evacuation map: We are about a mile below the southeast corner of the map (the gray part), in the Meadowridge area.