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Keystone Says No Immediate Danger from Fires
KEYSTONE, CO (June 10, 2002) - A number of fires burning in the central part of
Colorado pose no immediate threat to the Keystone Convention Center, site
of the The Feast and the 2002 Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant
Church, Covenant News Service has been advised.
Concern that the fires could threaten the Feast and the annual meeting site
heightened with Colorado Gov. Bill Owens' comments this morning that "all
of Colorado is burning today - it is a very, very serious situation." The
anxious mood intensified after a comment from the state's fire information
officer that "there has been zero containment."
Two of the more serious fires are to the west and south of the convention
center - the coal seam fire near Glenwood Springs and what is called the
Hayman fire to the south and east, in the direction of Colorado Springs.
"There is a canyon that separates us from Glenwood Springs," a spokesperson
at Keystone said this morning. Glenwood Springs is about 85 miles away.
Lake George also is about 80 miles distant, on the other side of the
mountains, and not viewed as an immediate threat, the spokesperson said.
"It's a beautiful day here," the Keystone spokesperson told Covenant News
Service. "We're higher (elevation) and cooler - and we've received a little
more precipitation than the other areas," she observed. When asked about
the governor's comments that "all of Colorado is burning today," she
speculated that he most likely was weary and not as precise in his
language.
The Denver metropolitan area was greeted Sunday with a plume of smoke and
ash that moved from the Hayman fire near Lake George towards Denver. Ash
and fumes "made people's throats burn and eyes water," state health
officials were quoted as saying in a Denver Post article.
The Hayman fire, raging about 60 miles from Denver, had already destroyed
30,000 acres by Monday morning, leading to the closure of all federal land
in a five-county area. The fire near Glenwood Springs, which erupted as the
result of a decades-long underground coal seam fire, had scorched 7,500
acres by Sunday evening, for a time closing portions of Interstate 70, the
main highway route into that area (the same route services Keystone).
Seven other fires were reported in other parts of the state.
Additional information will be provided on this Covenant news site as it
becomes available.
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