We don't often talk about wildfires and snow in the same day in Colorado Springs, but here we are with a 10,000 acre brush fire burning at Fort Carson, and snow coming down. The fire started yesterday afternoon, and we could see the smoke pretty clearly up north, 20 miles away or so. One air born firefighter was killed when his plane crashed after dumping slurry on the blaze. It is such dangerous work, I am amazed and thankful it doesn't happen more often. Brush fires or grass fires on Fort Carson aren't really that rare (they do some controlled burns to minimize the risk of large fires), but one this size is, and it is already being called the largest in the county's history according to the sheriff.
The warmth of yesterday accompanied by the high winds of spring weather changes undoubtedly contributed to the rapid spread of this one. Thankfully the newly arrived cold and snow should help douse before it gets any bigger, and hopefully no one else gets hurt fighting it. Cold and wet snowy weather are expected to hang around into tomorrow.