Several weeks ago I wrote a post about the start of the Cameron Peak Fire in northern Colorado. This fire has brought up some challenging emotions for me and I’m sure I’m not done dealing with all of them.
This fire started August 13th high up near the Continental Divide near Chambers Lake. It was started by a person though the details have not been publicly released yet. It was a bluebird day. The fire sat at around 25,000 acres for a long time—weeks, and I was lulled into some sense of hope that it wouldn’t grow much more before the snows came. But fire is fickle and a beast waiting for just the right weather conditions. Last weekend the fire more than tripled with one run of 10 miles.
Those of you from the western USA and places like Australia know about fire. We know somehow deep down how dangerous it is, how it kills people, how it can seem consistent and even placid for a long time and then roar to life, eating everything in its path. Learning more about the science of fire has been fascinating. I have great respect for the fire professionals working on this fire. They give twice-daily public addresses (online), media talks, and they have plans they are willing to share.
But I can’t help but feel often that it seems futile. The fierceness of a fire being fanned by 30-60 mph winds in fuel that is bone-dry standing and down beetle kill is unimaginable. The fire creates its own weather and the humans are but puny bits of flesh in comparison to the power of that force. We had three very hot, dry, windy days where the fire raged and then we had some snow. I am not foolish enough to believe that 5 inches of snow is going to put out a fire like this. I expect most of that moisture evaporated before it even hit the fire, but perhaps the wetting of the fuel on the edges and cooler temperatures will give firefighters a window to fortify their lines along the old High Park Fire scar and to continue trying to keep the communities of Red Feather Lakes and others safe.
I wove this panel about the fire last month. The top portion is from a photo I took on my birthday in early August as I left the Rawah Wilderness, hoping to come back in a couple weeks. The bottom is the same mountain burning.*
I was pretty happy with the fire imagery. It reflected my feelings at the time pretty well. The top panel gave me some difficulties because the values I chose are not great. They are too similar and the soaring feeling of that krumholz tree standing against the mountain and sky is somewhat lost.
Rebecca Mezoff, Cameron Peak Fire tapestry
I’m working on a few more tapestries that are about regeneration. The only way I know to deal with the grief of this fire which has burned essentially all of the Poudre Canyon now, is to think about what happens after fire. How the wildflowers come in the first and second year. How little aspen trees start coming up. Eventually the aspen forest will shelter new pine trees if we’re lucky and climate change allows it to happen.
The weaving below is still in process. If you want to hear me talk about it and see me weave some of it, the Change the Shed episode from September 9th shows that. I really enjoyed weaving the bottom part where I was thinking about wildflowers dotting the hillsides. I used weaversbazaar 18/2 wool for most of the weft with the flowers being hand-painted silk from Mirrix. And you better believe I was more careful with the values on this one!
Rebecca Mezoff, Cameron Peak Fire 3
I have a few more ideas for pieces to follow and we’ll see where the fire takes me from here. Evacuation orders have come and gone for communities just outside of Fort Collins. There isn’t any fuel here and this large city is not in danger, but so many people who live up in the mountains are.
*That exact mountain is actually not yet burning. I have carefully watched the fire’s edge as it burns toward the heart of the Rawah and my campsite and favorite spots up there have not yet burned. The trail in has burned and if the fire continues to chew northward, perhaps I won’t get lucky with those places being spared. But I have one small hope for that. Other places are looking to be in huge danger such as CSU Mountain Campus and another favorite place, Emmaline Lakes. The fire has burned over tundra and is now established in Rocky Mountain National Park also.