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Hmm... colorado springs is almost straight east of the fire... at least 20 miles away (probably more like 30)....
the first day it started, the sky was gray and everything was hazy + smelled of smoke... then the winds picked it up and moved it north, so you couldn't really tell much. went to fort collins over the weekend and up there it didn't really seem like anything had happened...
yesterday though the winds changed. the skys are almost completely covered with 'clouds' and ash is raining down outside. sometimes it is hard to breath, and warnings have been issued for the elderly/young kids and people with respiratory problems.
last night, while driving home from work (about 30 minutes, drive from about the middle of the city to the very north side), there was a good 15 minute chunk where you would have thought the sun had set. when i did see the sun again, it was a deep red color because of the clouds. quite impressive.
about the lady who did it... reports are that she was burning a letter from her estranged husband (in a fire pit), put it out and didn't realize it was still smoldering, and it developed into a fire. she then is supposed to have attempted to put the fire out, but it grew too tall, went to the trees and then got blown from tree to tree...
she is 38 years old, and her job was to clean park toilets and keep people out of trouble (ie, keep them from starting fires).
she made one bad judgement call (she burned something despite the fire danger), and one understandable mistake (not knowing that when you put paper out, it will smolder for a while afterwards). she lied to investigators because she was ashamed of it, because she was guilty. it is human nature. if she gets judged the way that everyone is screaming for, she will go to jail for 20 years, pay $750,000 for a fine (for the crimes of destruction of federal property, lying to an arson investigator), at the time of yesterday pay up to $7,000,000 in restitution for destroyed property. on top of that, they will be federal felony charges, she will probably never be able to get a job inside the state of colorado again (at least not any respectable job), and she will not be able to get any sort of government job ever again. she couldn't even work at an elementary school as a janitor. odds are she will never be able to get a job that will allow her to pay off the $750,000 because of the fact felony charges stay on your record, let alone the possible $7,000,000 additional.
simply put, her life is over. just for a mistake that any child could have made.
the first day it started, the sky was gray and everything was hazy + smelled of smoke... then the winds picked it up and moved it north, so you couldn't really tell much. went to fort collins over the weekend and up there it didn't really seem like anything had happened...
yesterday though the winds changed. the skys are almost completely covered with 'clouds' and ash is raining down outside. sometimes it is hard to breath, and warnings have been issued for the elderly/young kids and people with respiratory problems.
last night, while driving home from work (about 30 minutes, drive from about the middle of the city to the very north side), there was a good 15 minute chunk where you would have thought the sun had set. when i did see the sun again, it was a deep red color because of the clouds. quite impressive.
about the lady who did it... reports are that she was burning a letter from her estranged husband (in a fire pit), put it out and didn't realize it was still smoldering, and it developed into a fire. she then is supposed to have attempted to put the fire out, but it grew too tall, went to the trees and then got blown from tree to tree...
she is 38 years old, and her job was to clean park toilets and keep people out of trouble (ie, keep them from starting fires).
she made one bad judgement call (she burned something despite the fire danger), and one understandable mistake (not knowing that when you put paper out, it will smolder for a while afterwards). she lied to investigators because she was ashamed of it, because she was guilty. it is human nature. if she gets judged the way that everyone is screaming for, she will go to jail for 20 years, pay $750,000 for a fine (for the crimes of destruction of federal property, lying to an arson investigator), at the time of yesterday pay up to $7,000,000 in restitution for destroyed property. on top of that, they will be federal felony charges, she will probably never be able to get a job inside the state of colorado again (at least not any respectable job), and she will not be able to get any sort of government job ever again. she couldn't even work at an elementary school as a janitor. odds are she will never be able to get a job that will allow her to pay off the $750,000 because of the fact felony charges stay on your record, let alone the possible $7,000,000 additional.
simply put, her life is over. just for a mistake that any child could have made.
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