Matt Meister: The Waldo Canyon Fire

The Waldo Canyon Fire is the most destructive fire in Colorado history, burning 346 homes to the ground in the northwest part of the city on June 26th, 2012 and causing smoke and fire damage to numerous other homes. According to the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association, insurance losses are estimated at more than $352.6 million with more than 4,300 claims filed to date. While a relatively small wildfire at 18,247 acres, its proximity to southern Colorado's largest population center and eventual movement into Colorado Springs makes it a very important fire. This talk will focus on the challenges of communicating the many facets of the fire in a broadcast setting. Traditional weather events have an expected length of time and a generally accepted idea of how the event will unfold. Not knowing how long the fire would last and what the evolution of the fire would be, combined with a lack of staffing resources in the weather department caused significant fatigue. During what ended up being a nearly week long around the clock broadcasting event, exhaustion was a challenge to overcome. Personal involvement in covering the story, including learning that a close friends home was burning while live on the air will be included. Several examples of using tools in the weather center to analyze the fire and communicate where the fire actually was in relation to the community will be highlighted in this talk. Additionally, the benefits and challenges of using social media for information gathering and dissemination of information will be discussed as will the importance of a traditional broadcast medium that emerged during the event to those fleeing their homes as the fire blew into Colorado Springs. Lastly, a statewide Interactive Warning Team (IWT) was assembled at a two day workshop in Colorado Springs in April 2012. The successes of the resulting collaboration between the National Weather Service Offices in Pueblo and Boulder, broadcast meteorologists and local government agencies during the fire as a direct result of the IWT will be highlighted.