Fire, Smoke, and Unbundling Update

Fire and Smoke

It’s Day 5 of the High Park Fire, and while the fire has burned over 46,000 acres, it is now 10% contained and authorities have doubled the number of resources fighting it (1000 staff) along with 100 fire engines, 5 heavy tankers, 5 single engine tankers, and 14 helicopters – the cavalry continues to arrive!

The fire continues to grow, 2600 homes evacuated, 100+ structures burned, and the focus of firefighters remains on structure protection while also building fire lines around the perimeter.

 Although our home is only a few miles from the fire “mileage-wise”, the good news is there is a large reservoir between us and the fire.  We do have to stay wary of flying embers and the air quality is pretty bad with all the smoke, but we are safe.  My heart and thoughts are with our friends and community members who have lost their homes, and with the awesome firefighters who continue to work to save as many more homes as possible and to put this fire out.

There are many grass-roots benefit efforts spinning up locally to help out those impacted by the fire (one of the reasons I love living here is the awesome community spirit) and we’ll work together to get through this one day at a time.  Right now there’s still a lot of waiting and watching and sadness about all of the destruction.

Unbundling

And then there are the artful distractions that I’m thankful for.  Unwrapping these silk bundles, they somehow seemed to carry some of the energy of this fire and thick smoke in their threads:

eco-dyed silk scarves, unbundled

eco-dyed silk scarves

I’ll continue on with finishing these and other new artworks to have on hand for the Ft. Collins Studio tour June 23/24, even though with the fire raging on, everything else seems to pale in significance.