Tweets Covering Major Wildfire in Real Time
The Black Forest Fire north of Colorado Springs has damaged or destroyed at least 80 homes and caused some 6,000 people to evacuate overnight.
The El Paso County, Colo. Sheriff’s Office in Colorado Springs is just one of the agencies and news operations producing real-time reports via Twitter about the Black Forest Fire, which Sheriff Terry Maketa said "is far from under control" and covers 48 square miles of heavily timbered land as of Wednesday morning. A subsequent tweet from his office said the fire is at zero percent containment, but "the line was held on the south and southeast sides."
Mandatory evacuations were ordered, and residents are not yet allowed to return to those areas.
The @BlackForestFire Twitter page is filled with tweets from the Pikes Peak Red Cross, FEMA, KRDO News Channel 13, and many others offering updates about the fire.
Federal firefighting crews were scheduled to take command of the firefighting effort Wednesday, according to the Denver Post's coverage. No responders have been injured thus far, according to a Wednesday morning tweet from Maketa's office. Check @EPCSheriff and @EPCPIO for the latest updates.