Community Corner

Colorado Springs Residents with Local Ties Dealing with Fires

For Olympian Chas Betts, the ash and smoke has been a distraction less than a month before the London 2012 games. But for now, those with local ties, like Betts, are surviving down in Colorado Springs.

As Chas Betts made his way through the Olympic Training Center a couple of days ago, the unthinkable started to happen. 

"It was kind of like a volcano," Betts, a 2012 qualifier and former St. Michael-Albertville standout in wrestling, said. "It was like raining ash and soot." 

Betts has called Colorado Springs his home for the past several years as he's trained day and night to earn a spot on the Greco-Roman wrestling squad, a dream he accomplished last spring. 

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This isn't the kind of distraction he, or any of the team, really wants or needs. Yet, the urgency of the Waldo Canyon fire, which has destroyed homes in the Springs' northern areas and threatened the United States Air Force Academy, outweights anything else right now. 

"It's on the news constantly. It's pretty scary," Betts said. "I'm fortunate because the training center is right in the center of town, really. It would have to get even more extreme for us to worry. But you see the way it's charging through some of these areas and you feel bad for those people who've lost their homes."

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Or their offices. Megan Slinden Crabtree, cousin of St. Michael natives Janel Carlson Borchert and Cheryl Carlson Wentzel, said her offices on the campus of Everest University were under mandatory evacuation as of Wednesday morning, through she was relatively safe on the south side of town. 

"I'm out of harm's way for now, but was at work when the fire started getting close Saturday and there were huge plumes billowing from the Waldo Canyon area, a place I've hiked on occaision," Crabtree wrote to Patch Wednesday afternoon. "It's progressively gotten closer to my office's front door." 

More than 34,000 residents have been evacuated from the city's northern neighborhoods, as dry conditions have fueled the fire. Rain was in the forecast today, but should just slow the fire's progress–not completely douse it.

Iconic places around Colorado Springs, such as Garden of the Gods and areas of the United States Air Force Academy, have been charred, with dozens of homes now lost to the fire. 

"The Flying W Ranch and Glen Eyrei, both local landmarks, have been destroyed. THe area most-affected is extremely affluents, and some beautiful, million-dollar homes have been leveled," Crabtree said. 

The president plans to visit Colorado Springs Friday for a firsthand look, and to thank firefighters who have come from across Colorado and other Rocky Mountain states to fight. Many are sleeping in makeshift camps at the foot of the canyons.

Air quality varies with wind shifts, but Crabtree has been able to play outside with her daughter, for now. Some days, the smoke gets thick. 

"Please pray for us and pray for rain," Crabtree said. "There are people whose lives are ruined by this." 

Donations are being taken by the Pikes Peak Regional Chapter of the American Red Cross, which is helping displaced families all over Colorado as the state battles multiple fires, with other blazes burning in Ft. Collins and south of Boulder.

"I've been down here since 2005," Crabtree said. "This is just crazy."

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