By Trevor French
This is a collection of photos that I took during the worst fire season the state of Colorado has ever experienced with the top three largest fires taking place in 2020. The total amount of acres burned in 2020 reached over 600,000 acres and devastated the communities that surrounded them.
CHATRIDGE 2 BRUSH FIRE (Highlands Ranch, CO)
When I photographed the Chatridge 2 brush fire it was a weird scene as it was burning in a suburban area which i've never seen before & was threatening neighborhoods right by it. I took most of these photos from Mountain Vista High School until police were evacuating the school area as people were jumping the fence and walking out towards the fire to get a better look.
ELEPHANT BUTTE WILDFIRE (Evergreen, CO)
I had a front row view to the operations happening during this fire as the helicopters were refilling their water supply at the Evergreen Lake. The helicopters were yards away from where I was standing. The wildfire was eventually suppressed as a heavy rainfall came along.
WILLIAMS FORK WILDFIRE (Grand County, CO)
Two out of the three of these photos I took from the top of Cottonwood Pass which would later be closed in the following days. From the top I had a clear shot of the Williams Fork wildfire engulfing the mountain side. The day I took these photos I was actually boating with family on Lake Granby where you could see the Cameron Peak fire on one side of the lake and the Williams Fork fire on the other.
VIEW FROM LAKE GRANBY:
LEFT: Williams Fork Wildfire RIGHT: CAMERON PEAK WILDFIRE
CAL WOOD WILDFIRE (Boulder, CO)
When I was driving down to Boulder, you could see the massive column of smoke rising all the way from Aurora. Once in Boulder the roads were clogged with people watching the wildfire and those fleeing the fire. I decided it was not a good place to be causing more traffic, so I ended up taking a neighborhood road near the Boulder Reservoir and ended up at Eagle Trailhead. There I remained taking photos of the fire watching it slowly inch it's way down the mountain side towards the houses below. Once darkness came the sky turned into an orange inferno as you could see flames shooting miles into the sky. It was an eerie scene as it felt like the apocalypse was coming.
My images of the Cal Wood Wildfire published in the The Mountain Ear Newspaper (Nederland, CO)
Ward, CO
These next set of photos are of the remains of Winding River Ranch in the Columbine Lake area. This was where my sister & brother-in-law were married back in the summer of 2018 and the first few photos below are from the wedding just to show what the ranch looked like before the fire came through.
Wedding Photo Credit: Drake Busch (Drake & CO Photography)
PICTURES BELOW: The remains of Highland Marina at Lake Granby.
Burnt trees filled the side of Highway 34 between Grand Lake and Granby.
