I'm actually also in Colorado. I have family affected by the High Park fire, friends affected by the Waldo Canyon fire, and I'm in spitting distance of yet another fire, which is nowhere near as bad as the other two, but is incredibly close to a very populated area and I just so happen to be on the side closest to it. Still, I'm in nowhere near as bad of a position as Chocoloco is. The Waldo Canyon fire exploded yesterday, whereas this one has stayed relatively small.
Here's why the fires are so bad in Colorado right now. One, we have had incredibly dry weather for months, since about February. There was less snow in the mountains, and less rain. So everything is really dry right now.
Two, pine beetle kill. That's a huge problem with the forests in the Rockies right now. There are tons of dead trees everywhere that died because of this. The government has prohibited forest service from burning out these areas, or cutting them down and using them for something. So they're just sitting there waiting to be burned, and it gets worse every year.
Three, and I already mentioned this, the government has prohibited forest service from burning out these areas. If they didn't stop every fire, and actually let some of the dead stuff burn, it wouldn't acumulate so much, and we wouldn't be in as much trouble with this record setting heat and thunder storms that spit out a lot of lighting.
The result of not clearing this stuff out is what you're seeing now. The second largest and most destructive fire in state history is still burning, smoke and haze are covering basically the whole state, and more fires are popping up dangerously close to populated areas.
