Old News

Alex and Karl went to the fire information meeting at the Red Cross Shelter at the Woodland Park High School. Several important people made commentary on structure damage and fire progression in Teller and Douglass counties in the past 24 hours.

The team leader for the Southern Hayman Fire was the highlight of the meeting. He said that the fire conditions today (Wednesday) were much better than the past 2 days, and that the threat to Woodland Park was severely deminished. He noted, however, that this fire's previous track record and the consistently dry weather conditions did not allow him to say that Woodland Park was out of danger; thus, the city will remain on notice for possible evacuation. He went on to describe in detail the location of of firelines and the progression of the fire from yesterday with the aid of a large overhead map. He also made note that that new fires that have sprung up in the South of the state have caused a diversion of resources from the Hayman and Missionary Ridge fires, although at this time they do not believe this will seriously hamper the efforts to keep the fire under control

A big question at the meeting was the amount of time residents would have to evacuate should the need arise. The answer to this question was eventually given as about 4 hours, assumeing a crazy act of God like the 19 mile run the fire made earlier in the week wasn't in motion. The 4 hours given to residents is made by a series of predictions that firefighters make about the behavior of the fire, combined with the local authorities ability to notify people in the affected area to leave.

At the end of the meeting, a brief presentation was given outlining how those affected by the fire could apply for disaster relief from FEMA, as Colorado is now a disaster area.

Overall, the tone of the meeting was upbeat, and the officials were of the general mood that the town was in much better shape than it has been in the last 2-3 days.