Blog: a web log
06/23/2003: "Colo. residents ready for wildfire season"
DURANGO — Carl and Freda Brown had two minutes to leave when the 70,000-plus-acre Missionary Ridge fire neared their ranch. When they returned home, rain on the burned slopes above the ranch brought mudslides and another threat to the house they had lived in for 50 years.
Today there's something new at Cool Water Ranch: a motor home filled with their prized possessions, ready to go at a moment's notice if Carl, 73, and Freda, 65, have to leave again.
"Our concern is people may have become quite complacent about the potential for fire danger," said Terry McCann, spokesman for the Pike National Forest that was burned by the Hayman fire, Colorado's worst blaze, last summer. "We have had a number of campfires left untended or abandoned. Fortunately, there were no noteworthy problems, but all it takes is one." (Boulder Daily Camera)
