There was also plenty of worry. NEWS FROM THE FIRE MARSHAL'S OFFICE: The East Granby Fire Marshal's Office would like to advise all residents with this Holiday Weekend to please enjoy and be careful. “When things blew up on Tuesday, we said, ‘Scrap that.’ Wednesday we had a call and began moving everyone over to Berthoud.”. The Granby Center fire department is 100 VOLUNTEER..100 of the time. As dark, fire-stained clouds billowed over the towns of Granby and Grand Lake that day, Northern’s West Slope team grabbed operation logs from the Farr pumping plant on the banks of Lake Granby. GRANBY – Fire Chief John Mitchell has been suspended without pay for the month of June and town officials are mum as to why. The cause of a fire being investigated by DNR may be available quickly, or may take several months, depending on complexity. Without power to run its dewatering system, the plant would flood. “We had to make sure we could get in, get what we needed done, and get out of there,” Friar said. The East Troublesome fire burns near Granby on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020. Smoke fills the air as the East Troublesome fire burns near Granby on Thursday, OCt. 22, 2020. The Cameron Peak and East Troublesome megafires have blazed permanent images in the minds of people across Grand and Larimer counties. “I don’t think anyone up here ever felt alone,” Friar said. Officials say the fire destroyed ranches, homes, businesses and cabins. East Troublesome Fire burns in Grand County, October 2020. Credit: Northern Water, Smoke billows over Northern Water facilities in Grand County. The pumping plant lies almost entirely below the surface of Lake Granby. West Slope staff who weren’t evacuated offered trailers to those who had been, hauling household goods and horses. The town was incorporated in 1905, and a new town hall was finished in February 2007. At a Glance. Until Oct. 21 when Grand County’s East Troublesome fire sprinted 17 miles in less than three hours, threatening to engulf communities across the county and giving these Northern Water staffers and others just hours to decide how best to move the water agency’s operations center out of Grand County and over to Northern’s emergency operations center in Berthoud, on Colorado’s Front Range. Northern Water is the largest exporter of water from Colorado’s West Slope to the Front Range, serving farms and dozens of cities from Broomfield and Lafayette to Boulder, Loveland and Greeley. The prospect, he said, is daunting. The fire has led to evacuations, pre-evacuations in Grand Lake, Granby and Estes Park. Three of the five largest fires in Colorado history are from 2020. Penny Watson, 67, pauses for a moment in her yard as she and her son Stephen secure their trailer before evacuating due to the East Troublesome fire in Granby on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020. For years, Colorado and other Western States have planned for and dealt with wildfires and their aftermath: the scorched soils and trees that clog their delivery systems, fill their reservoirs with eroded soils, and cloud their once-pristine water supplies. Dec. 13, 2020. Credit: Jerd Smith. Water infrastructure in the West is often built in high-altitude mountain ranges in order to collect the winter snows that fall and melt into streams. The wind-driven fire burning west of Lake Granby has quickly grown to more than 30,000 acres with 10% containment as of Wednesday evening, according to a fire … The East Troublesome Fire burns near the Farr Pump Plant on Lake Granby October 2020. Credit: Northern Water. Grand County, Colorado East Troublesome Fire explodes to 125,677 acres. They had dozens of calls with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which owns Northern’s system, as well as emergency managers with the U.S. and Colorado State forest services and the Grand County fire and sheriff departments, and county emergency response teams. Thank you for your support. ... Oct. 22, 2020, near Granby… Partner information sources. These fires devastated California over the summer and the same phenomenon struck Colorado in the fall. Incident command has checked the area and reports no new fire activity. (Eli Pace, Sky-Hi News) First coronavirus, then an inferno: How schools in the East Troublesome fire’s path are scrambling to keep their students learning Districts are pondering distance learning after many students and teachers were forced to evacuate because of the East Troublesome fire. The fire, called East Troublesome after a nearby creek, has spread to more than 125,000 acres. East Troublesome Fire explodes to 170,163 acres, forces thousands of evacuations The fire was roughly 14,000 acres on Wednesday morning Photo from Estes Park, Oct. 22 … We don’t even go there.”. The highway is closed near Granby due to the fire. Updated: 11:08 PM MDT October 23, 2020 … Hart Van Denburg/CPR News The East Troublesome fire burns just a few miles from Granby in the early hours of Thursday morning, Oct. 22, 2020. Smoke rises from mountain ridges as a wildfire burns while buses sit idle at the high school Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020, in Granby, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) Jessy Ellenberger made this … Mandatory evacuations were ordered in Estes Park. Ten minutes later, Friar said, the power went off. Smoke plumes stretched 40,000 feet in the air. The East Troublesome fire burns along the ridge near Granby, Colo., in Grand County on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020. The East Troublesome Fire burns in Grand County in October 2020. Credit: Northern Water. Sign up for Fresh Water News to get up-to-the-minute stories delivered to your inbox. “Those [plans] quickly went away,” said Friar, who oversees the utility’s collection system. Our address is: 7 Memorial Drive - East Granby, CT . CLICK HERE TO TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS. People are seeing plumes created by wind uplifting ash and dust in the fire area north of Granby. They tracked down the half dozen or so mechanics, electricians and operators who would need to make quick exits, and figured out how to ferry everyone to safety over the Continental Divide. Fresh Water News is an independent, nonpartisan news initiative of Water Education Colorado. ... Robert Czerwinski started Tuesday as the interim fire chief for the town of Granby, making $90,000 a year. Our Christmas festival is scheduled for December 12th. The East Troublesome fire burns near Granby on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020. “It was worse than any worst-case scenario we had,” said Northern’s Environmental Services Manager Esther Vincent during a debriefing with the utility’s customers and others post-fire. The East Troublesome Fire has burned more than 265 square miles. The East Troublesome fire burns just a few miles from Granby in the early hours of Thursday morning, Oct. 22, 2020. The East Troublesome fire burns just a few miles from Granby in the early hours of Thursday morning, Oct. 22, 2020. Roughly 30 percent to 80 percent of Northern’s four major watersheds have burned, they estimate. It is quickly becoming a ghost town as residents and business owners fear they might return to devastation. On A Motion by Neumann, seconded by King, the board voted (5-0-0) to approve the amendment to the ordinance Exemption for Volunteer Fire and Ambulance Personnel [Adopted 10-1-2020]. Please check burn restrictions before lighting any fire. In Brief: Can water conservation save the Great Salt Lake? A fire near Enumclaw and Highway 410 started Tuesday as well. ... 2020; GRANBY… The Fire and Smoke Map shows fine particulate (2.5 micron, PM 2.5) pollution data obtained from air quality monitors and sensors.Information is shown on both the EPA’s Air Quality Index scale, using the NowCast AQI algorithm, and also as hourly PM 2.5 concentration values. This may occur again tomorrow with high winds.#EastTroublesome Grand County Sheriff's Office - Colorado Grand County Emergency Management Structure loss has been confirmed in spots. And I don’t want to know. 05/23/2020 . GRANBY, Colo. (KDVR) — Evacuations are underway in Granby and the surrounding area. Published: 10/28/2020 12:47 PM; A family and their pets were safely evacuated from a house fire Wednesday in Granby, according to police. New Wildland Fire Near Lake Granby Contained By Logan Smith October 2, 2020 at 2:42 pm GRAND COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) — Fire crews in Grand County … Smoke fills the air as the East Troublesome fire burns near Granby on Thursday, OCt. 22, 2020. Since mid-August, Northern’s team had watched the Cameron Peak Fire burning in Rocky Mountain National Park just to the north of Grand County, threatening some of Northern’s customers and watersheds, but not the heart of its collection system. ... Oct. 22, 2020, near Granby… Hart Van Denburg/CPR News The East Troublesome fire burns just a few miles from Granby in the early hours of Thursday morning, Oct. 22, 2020. Robert “Grizz” Maguire, 60, leans up against his truck as he watches smoke pass by from the East Troublesome fire in Granby on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020. A … by Jerd Smith | Dec 21, 2020 | Agriculture, Climate and Drought, Colorado River, Drinking Water, Environment, Infrastructure, Water Quality, Water Supply |, The East Troublesome Fire in Grand County burned down to the shore of Willow Creek Reservoir, one of the lakes in Northern Water's collection system in Grand County. The … Jerd Smith is editor of Fresh Water News. Smoke builds up in the sky from the East Troublesome Wildfire in Granby, CO on Thursday, OCt. 22, 2020. Get the latest on Colorado’s wildfires here. Northern’s Greg Dewey will oversee the fire restoration work. Published June 19, 2020 • Updated on June 19, 2020 at 9:35 pm NBCConnecticut.com Crews responded to brush fires that were caused by downed power lines in Granby … They spent $28 million cleaning up and restoring reservoirs in the first 10 post-fire years and continue to spend millions annually planting trees and doing erosion control, according to Christina Burri, a watershed scientist with Denver Water. The Adams Tunnel takes water pumped from Lake Granby to Grand Lake and pipes it under the Continental Divide to the Front Range. What Anderson remembers most now is returning to his Granby home when the evacuation orders were finally lifted. Updated: 12:29 PM EDT September 23, 2020 EAST GRANBY, Conn. — Fire crews in East Granby had some help in fighting a brush fire overnight in Cowles Park. When East Troublesome exploded eight weeks later, the water utility found itself suddenly squeezed between what have now become Colorado’s two largest wildfires in recorded history, with Cameron Peak consuming 209,000 acres and East Troublesome 194,000, before both were declared contained in November. Denver Water, the only utility larger than Northern in Colorado, battled two smaller—but still epic—fires within the past three decades: the 1996 Buffalo Creek Fire and the 2002 Hayman Fire, which until this year had been the state’s largest. December has delivered more elegant white snows to Grand and Larimer counties since October, when the first winter storm calmed the fires. The Selectboard voted on Monday not to … For days afterward, they would rotate the chore of going into the silent pumping plant, filling its generators with diesel fuel and checking to make sure the dewatering system was still working. The East Troublesome Fire has burned more than 265 square miles. CO 125 closed near Granby due to East Troublesome Fire October 17, 2020 - Northwestern Colorado - Evacuations in place for nearby residents GRAND COUNTY — Colorado Highway 125 is closed near Granby due to the East Troublesome Fire. DNR is using Washington National Gaurd assistance. Snow is expected to hit the fire areas on Sunday, which should provide temporary relief … Driven by strong winds and racing through dry fuels and timber, the East Troublesome fire in Grand County continued to rage Thursday, growing to 170,000 acres as it crossed the Continental Divide and forced new evacuations around Estes Park. Craig Friar and Steve Anderson had seen wildfires smolder and flare before. The East Troublesome Fire near Granby on Oct. 21, 2020. He said it was a "rollercoaster of a … His deputies, he said, worked to rescue four loggers who were surrounded by flames on a county road. GRANBY — The town needs a new fire chief. Maguire … (credit: CBS) “The fire got ahead of us. But the East Troublesome Fire, already known for its cranky, unpredictable nature, changed direction, blocking access to the local site. The blaze grew to about … The fire, which burned a yet-undetermined number of homes and buildings while threatening Grand Lake, increased an extraordinary 150,000 acres in size Wednesday night and Thursday to become the second-largest wildfire in Colorado’s recorded history. These areas are also currently under mandatory evacuation orders: All areas west of Highway 34 All areas north of milepost 2 on Highway 34 to Rocky Mountain National Park “I don’t know what would happen. There, he and his family encountered a strange sight: The house was unharmed, but the front door stood wide open. Czerwiski retired last year as Pittsfield chief and will begin his duties leading the Granby department on Nov. 10. October 23, 2020. Updated: 1:32 PM EST December 9, 2020 SOUTHWICK, Massachusetts ... is back open from the Granby line to the Nicholson Hill Intersection following a large structure fire. It is greatly appreciated - Happy Holidays! ... GRANBY — Fire Chief John Mitchell, who has been suspended without pay for the month of June due to accusations of speeding and recklessness while driving town cars, will continue his suspension into July after coming under fire for questionable Facebook comments. “For years we’ve planned for treatments [for the overgrown forests already decimated by pine beetles]. The East Troublesome fire has grown to be the second-largest wildfire … They moved quickly to get to the controls that operate the tunnel, successfully closing it down. The Colorado Big Thompson Project, which Northern Water operates for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, lies between the Cameron Peak fire, shown at the top of the map, and the East Troublesome Fire, shown at the bottom left. Containment on the East Troublesome Fire stands at 5%, and 57% on the Cameron Peak Fire. ... — Ecology - Northwest Region (@ecyseattle) September 8, 2020. Now it’s reduced to twisted metal and ash after the East Troublesome Fire … They tracked down housing for co-workers who feared their homes had burned. and last updated 2020-10-17 23:05:16-04. (Eli Pace, Sky-Hi News) The sheriff said he was overwhelmed by the way the community came together to rescue residents and evacuate. A wildfire burning in Grand County, Colorado, has exploded from 19,000 acres to more than 125,000 on Thursday, forcing thousands of families to evacuate. We cover approximately 29 square miles with a population of about 4100 people. Penny Watson, 67, pauses for a moment in her yard as she and her son Stephen secure their trailer before evacuating due to the East Troublesome fire in Granby on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020. Updated: 12:29 PM EDT September 23, 2020 EAST GRANBY, Conn. — Fire crews in East Granby had some help in fighting a brush fire overnight in Cowles Park. An evacuation center was set up at the Inn at Silver Creek in Granby. The East Troublesome Fire which had been estimated to be around 19,000 acres in size Wednesday — burned into Rocky Mountain National Park from the southwest, raising the possibility for a time that it could merge with the Cameron Peak fire, as it previously had burned into the park from the north. Friar and others know they have four short months, the time until winter snows melt, to engineer and put into action a high-stakes rescue plan for the devastated watersheds and reservoirs. (CBS4) – Crews battling the East Troublesome Fire in Grand County gotten containment on the wildfire for the first time since it started burning last week. Roads in and out of the area remained closed and it took close coordination with the Grand County Fire Department and sheriff for Northern staffers to get past the fire barricades.