We’ve been watching the Waldo Canyon fire since it started on Saturday.

The above photos are all from Saturday late afternoon/early evening.

Today was a horror beyond anything I had imagined–which is saying a lot, because I’m a morbid pessimist. I believed that somehow the fire wouldn’t move past the outskirts of the city. The fire crossed the ridge over Mountain Shadows around 4:45 p.m., and within 45 minutes, homes were burning. We’ve been glued to the TV all evening, watching as subdivision after subdivision receives mandatory evacuation orders. Many of my dad’s current and former coworkers, many people from my parents’ church, some of the women from my book group, all live in the affected areas.

(This second set of photos is from around 7 tonight, June 26–in case this posts after midnight.)

Everyone is being told to remain inside because the air quality is so bad. When I step outside, my eyes and sinuses burn. Traffic has been awful all afternoon and evening, both because of the evacuations–more than 32,000 people–and because curiosity seekers have been stopping their cars in the middle of the road to look at the fire.

The news showed images from I-25. The sky looked completely red.

As we watch the news, various reporters have had to leave quickly because their families are being evacuated. They’re working 12-hour shifts; all regular programming has been replaced by fire coverage. We have watched houses burn down on television. Some of the anchors have broken down on air, talking about friends who have lost homes and about the loss of the Flying W Ranch, which has been a Colorado Springs landmark for 60 years. Most of us have fond memories of the Flying W: eating chuckwagon dinners, listening to the Wranglers play country music and out-fiddling the devil and kidding each other, feeling dusk creep down from the mountains as stars twinkled into the sky.

What happened this afternoon is that unanticipated 65-mile-an-hour gusts, coupled with dry lightning and record-breaking high temperatures, caused the fire to head north at a far higher rate than anyone could have predicted. The fire swept past primary and secondary containment lines, jumped a ridge, and traveled downslope, which apparently is very rare. From there, it was a short distance to the foothills subdivisions. Firefighters had to run for their lives.

For those familiar with Colorado Springs, the latest news is that Kissing Camels Estates is under mandatory evacuation orders, and Holland Park is on voluntary status. The Garden of the Gods has been closed for several days. Queen’s Canyon above Glen Eyrie has burned, and last I heard, there was still no word on the buildings there. Cedar Heights, Mountain Shadows, Rockrimmon, Peregrine, Mount Saint Francis, Pinon Valley, and the southern housing on the Air Force Academy have all been evacuated. Basically, everything west of I-25 from Fillmore north to the Academy is closed. On the south side, the fire has been contained at Highway 24, with firefighters lining the road to put out sparks and embers flying across the highway.

Tomorrow a thunderstorm is predicted, and there’s concern about flash floods on the newly denuded slopes.

For those who have expressed concern about my family and me, I appreciate your thoughts. We live on the eastern edge of Colorado Springs, well out of the threatened areas unless the fire consumes the whole city.

If you are a praying sort, please pray for Colorado Springs. So far, miraculously perhaps, there have been no reported injuries or fatalities.