Four Mile Canyon Fire

Oh, my. The fire has now engulfed 7,120 acres and uncounted homes (at least 43 at this time are known to be lost). At the moment, there are still no known human casualties - either home owners, or fire fighters. Boulder County and the state of Colorado have depleted all of our local resources. The Governor has just announced that all evacuees should expect to be away for at least 3 more nights, and that more evacuations are expected. The Federal government will be in charge of fighting the fire, recovery, and all other things associated with this fire as of 6 p.m. (MDT) this evening. There was an inversion over the area, and the slurry planes couldn't get off the ground to combat the fire until noon today. I was amazed to see two helicopters filling water buckets from Wonderland Lake starting at 11 this morning... I was visiting Sammie and Tuppurr at their home, which backs onto Wonderland this morning, as I'll be house-sitting them this weekend. Mimi should be landing at DIA in a few minutes, and I know that Silver, her Weimareiner, will be ecstatic to see her.
I've just returned home after a 25 minute visit yesterday morning (before seeing the news about the fire), and after a flying 3 minute visit last night to grab the extra litter, litter box and scooper for Tabitha's use. I have three nights at home before setting off on my continued adventures again. I did not walk the Irish kids this morning, as their folks cancelled their walk due to such unhealthy air conditions. I apologize for continuing to write so much about the fire, but it is difficult to ignore, as our entire environment is affected by this event. The fire is continuing to spread, mostly on the northern, northwest, and northeast perimeters - but the guys say this is still an extremely volatile fire, and is actually still spreading in all directions.