Colorado
How to prepare for a wildfire evacuation in Colorado
Preparing to evacuate because of a wildfire is now a year-round reality in Colorado, with destructive, deadly wildfires possible every month of the year, according to state officials.
Colorado’s “core wildfire season” is now 78 days longer than it was 50 years ago, according to the state Division of Fire Prevention & Control, and state forest service experts estimate nearly half of all Coloradans are at risk from wildfires.
Residents can prepare for a possible wildfire evacuation or a pre-evacuation warning by gathering important supplies and documents and making their home as fire-resistant as possible through these guidelines from the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Colorado State Forest Service and Colorado Springs Fire Department.
Supplies for wildfire emergency kit or go-bag
- Three-day supply of water (1 gallon per person per day) and non-perishable food
- First aid kit and sanitation supplies, including toilet paper and baby wipes
- Flashlight, battery-powered radio such as a NOAA Weather Radio and extra batteries
- Extra set of car keys, credit cards and cash
- Extra eyeglasses, contacts, prescriptions and a week’s supply of necessary medications
- Important documents and phone numbers, including insurance information
- Printed map with evacuation routes marked in case your phone dies
- Valuables or irreplaceable items you can easily carry
- Personal electronic devices and chargers
- A pair of old shoes and flashlight in case of a sudden evacuation at night
- Other items needed by your family, such as baby supplies, games and activities for children, pet supplies, two-way radios and a manual can opener
What to do during a wildfire pre-evacuation warning
- Be ready to leave at a moment’s notice and monitor local news for updates.
- Listen to your instincts. If you think you should evacuate even if you haven’t received an official notice, evacuate now.
- Back your car into the garage or park it facing the direction of escape.
- Put your emergency kit, important items and valuable papers inside your car.
- Wear protective clothing outside, such as sturdy shoes, cotton or wool clothing, long pants and a shirt, gloves and a handkerchief over your face.
- Put your pets in one room so you can find them easily if you need to evacuate.
- Set up temporary housing at a friend or family member’s home outside of the evacuation area.
- Close outside doors, windows and vents but leave them unlocked.
- Close inside doors to prevent drafts.
- Shut off natural gas or propane at the source.
- Connect garden hoses to outside faucets and fill any pools, hot tubs, tubs, garbage cans or large containers with water.
- Remove flammable drapes and curtains and close all shutters and blinds.
- Move flammable furniture to the center of your home, away from windows and sliding glass doors.
- Move flammable items outside your home, like patio furniture, children’s toys or firewood, as far from the house as possible.
- Leave interior and exterior lights on so firefighters can see in smoky conditions.
- Shut off the air conditioning and sprinkler system.
- Disconnect automatic garage door openers so they can still be opened if the power goes out, but leave them closed.
- Check on your neighbors to make sure they’re preparing to leave.
Colorado
Avalanche discipline, power play falters, Central Division lead shrinks in 5-2 loss to Wild
The Colorado Avalanche had a chance Thursday night to regain some real separation between them and the Minnesota Wild.
It didn’t happen, and special teams were again an issue.
Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek scored a pair of power-play goals, while the Avalanche took too many penalties and did not convert its chances with the extra man in a 5-2 loss at Ball Arena. The Wild scored on two of six power plays, both in the second period, then added a shorthanded goal into an empty net for good measure.
“We took six (penalties). Six is too many, especially against a power play like theirs,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We had a slow start to the second and then just kind of started getting going, then took a bunch of penalties and kind of took the momentum away and swung it back in their favor again.”
Mackenzie Blackwood was excellent early in this contest and stopped 31 of 34 shots for the Avs in his first start since the Olympic break. Colorado, which went 0-for-3 on the power play, has not scored an extra-man goal in back-to-back games since Dec. 31 and Jan. 3. The Avs are 2-for-31 with the man advantage since Jan. 16, and at 15.1% are last in the NHL.
The Wild are now just five points behind the Avs in the Central Division, though Colorado has two games in hand. Filip Gustavsson made 44 saves for the visitors.
“I think we crated enough chances to win the hockey game,” Bednar said. “We give up the (second power-play goal) and that’s the difference in the hockey game for me. We had a chance (on the power play) … we score and it’s a tie game. We haven’t had an easy time capitalizing on some of our chances that we created in the last month.
“I’d like to see that turn around a little bit.”
Minnesota took advantage of three penalties on Colorado in a span of 53 seconds to take the lead with 2:23 left in the second period. Captain Gabe Landeskog was sent to the box for elbowing Eriksson Ek away from the play at 14:15 and Valeri Nichushkin was called for cross-checking at 15:04.
That gave the Wild a 5-on-3, but it went from bad to worse in a hurry for the home side. Brock Nelson won the 3-on-5 in his own end, but Brent Burns’ backhanded attempt to clear the puck out of the zone went into the stands for a delay of game.
Minnesota had a 5-on-3 for 1:56, which Colorado successfully killed off, but because Burns’ two minutes didn’t start until Landeskog’s penalty ended, there was more 5-on-4 time and Eriksson Ek scored his second of the night. The Swedish Olympian was trying to send a cross-crease pass to Kirill Kaprizov, but it hit the inside of Blackwood’s right leg and pinballed across the goal line.
Because of the extended penalty time, both Eriksson Ek and Boldy officially logged a shift of more than four minutes, leading to that goal.
“I’m not a big fan of the penalties we took, necessarily,” Landeskog said. “Obviously, mine is a penalty. Val, I felt like he was protecting himself and Burns, that’s a penalty. There’s nothing to argue about there. But yeah, that tilts the ice for sure and just gives them unnecessary momentum.
“So yeah, undisciplined and we’ve got to be better there for sure.”
Eriksson Ek put Minnesota in front at 7:48 of the second period. Cale Makar was called for slashing when his one-handed swipe while Yakov Trenin was attempting to shoot from the left wing. Trenin’s stick broke, so Makar went to the box.
Blackwood made the initial save on Matt Boldy’s shot from the high slot, but Eriksson Ek was there near the left post to clean up the rebound.
Martin Necas continued his hot run with a goal to even the score at 13:30 of the middle frame. Nathan MacKinnon picked up the puck in his own zone and carried it into the offensive end. He left a drop pass for Necas near the right point and then played fullback, driving Wild defenseman Daemon Hunt back to give Necas space and then providing a screen on a lethal wrist shot from his Czech linemate.
That was Necas’ 24th goal of the season. He added a second goal in the final minute after the Wild had built a three-goal advantage to give him 25 on the season.
It’s also three in two games since the Olympic break. Necas had three goals and eight points in five games for Czechia at the Olympics in Milan, equaling his country’s record for points at the event.
MacKinnon missed Colorado’s first game back on Wednesday because of maintenance. He actually slipped to third in the NHL scoring race as of Thursday morning, in part because Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov has now has 53 points in his past 23 games to track down MacKinnon and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid to make it a three-man race for the Art Ross Trophy.
McDavid (five times) and Kucherov (three) have combined to win the Art Ross in eight of the past nine years. MacKinnon has never won it, but has finished second each of the past two seasons.
Minnesota scored a second goal off a Colorado player to make it a 3-1 game and then added two empty-net tallies around Necas’ second goal to seal the Wild’s sixth win in a row.
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Late Thursday morning, a house fire spreading into the nearby woods in Colorado’s Golden Gate Canyon prompted officials to issue a pre-evacuation order to nearby residents. Firefighters have since brought the blaze under control.
According to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, a house fire broke out around 11:30 a.m. in the 10600 block of Ralston Creek Road in Golden Gate Canyon, located around 25 miles west of Denver. The fire then began to spread into the nearby trees and grass.
Multiple fire units quickly responded to the scene, and the JCSO issued a pre-evacuation notice to all residents within a three-mile radius, warning them to be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice.
At 12:34 p.m., the sheriff’s office announced that the fire is no longer spreading and the burn area has been contained to less than an acre. A photo shared by JCSO shows a structure nearly completely destroyed by the fire.
Pre-evacuation orders were lifted around 1 p.m.
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