Helicopters battle multiple Colorado wildfires

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Tony Laubach reported live from a reservoir where helicopters were gathering water to fight multiple wildfires in the Front Range on Aug. 1.

Transcript

00:00Well, fires in Colorado have turned deadly, as three fires are burning along the front

00:05range between Denver and Fort Collins.

00:07For the latest, we bring in AccuWeather Meteorologist Tony Laubach, and Tony, I know you've been

00:12getting some pretty compelling footage of some of the smoke plumes near you over the

00:15past few days.

00:17Yeah, Jeff, it has been hitting a little close to home.

00:22As you know, I live here in northern Colorado, I'm about 20 miles from both the Alexander

00:27Mountain Fire and the Stone Canyon Fire near Lyons.

00:33Those are blowing smoke across northern Colorado, but we're here in Denver, southwest Denver

00:37to be exact.

00:38Behind me you see Chatfield Reservoir.

00:40This is where a lot of the air support is getting their ammunition to fight the fire

00:45southwest of Denver, the Quarry Fire.

00:47We'll show you some of that video here of the choppers that are basically making circles

00:52from the fire to here at Chatfield.

00:54They dip in, they grab all their water, fill up as much as they can, and then they swing

00:58around the fire about five or so miles to the west of here, so making some very quick

01:02trips.

01:03Sometimes we're seeing as many as two to three helicopters making these rounds here within

01:06about a 10 or 15 minute period of time, so fortunately very close proximity to the fire,

01:11which is allowing these crews to fight this particular fire.

01:15We've been seeing a couple of planes in the area as well.

01:17Those have actually moved to area airports to refuel, and then they'll get back into

01:22action here over the next hour or so.

01:24As Jeff mentioned, we've got multiple fires in the vicinity here.

01:27We're going to show you the map here.

01:29There are three active fires, there are four on the map, because the Lakeshore Fire that

01:33is just outside of Boulder has been 100% contained.

01:37That did not grow more than six acres, so that is the good news, but when you combine

01:40everything, we're sitting under about 10,000 acres burning along the Colorado Front Range

01:44between Denver and Fort Collins.

01:46That Alexander Fire, you've been seeing footage from that all week, at 7,600 plus acres.

01:51That one is the largest fire right now, burning in northern Colorado, and that one again

01:55is active since Monday.

01:57The Stone Canyon Fire, that has been the fatal one.

01:59We have one fatality reported, as they found the remains in one of the buildings that were

02:03destroyed, so we did have several destroyed structures with that particular fire.

02:07That one, a smaller fire, only just over 1,500 acres.

02:11We have had several firefighters that have been taken to area hospitals, mainly for heat

02:14exhaustion.

02:15That has been one of the key enemies, so to speak, for the fires here, has been the heat,

02:20the dry heat, and you hear us talking about that all the time, the dry heat in Colorado,

02:24which unfortunately is fueling the fires.

02:26And Jeff, from meteorologist to meteorologist, a little interesting tidbit here.

02:29If you remember last year, last year Colorado set a record as one of the most prolific tornado

02:34seasons on record, due to the fact that we had exceptional, almost record rains, record

02:39moisture in the area.

02:41This year, a complete opposite.

02:43We haven't seen much in the way of any kind of severe weather season, because it's been

02:46so dry, and as a result, you get an active fire season, and that's what we've seen already

02:50this week.

02:51Yeah, it's always an interesting thing there.

02:54One or the other.

02:55Tony, thank you so much for that report.

02:56Be safe, and we're glad that at least your immediate area is okay, despite some scary

03:00times not far on the horizon.

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