There have been no forest fires in Colorado this September (or anyplace else in the southwest.) But it wasn’t always like that. One hundred fifteen years ago this month, a fire burned up the entire northwest quadrant of the state.
Governor Chickenpooper said in June that the Black Forest fire (which was perhaps 500X smaller) was the worst fire in the history of the state.
Time seems to erase the memories that should be most important to us. It was somewhere around the summer of 2000. The fires in Colorado were so numerous and bad that then governor Ritter requested that all the universities in Colorado allow their students fighting the fires continue without penalty for missing school. These students/ fire fighters missed an entire semester because of the extended fire season.