lohrphoto: Long Lived the King

Yesterday around 9:15 in the morning, I was on my way out to our job site when i got a call from a co-worker to get down to the Champion Cottonwood right away because it was on fire!!!

For those who don't know, The Champion Cottonwood of Boulder County is (was) North America's largest Plains Cottonwood Tree. Standing over 100 ft tall and over 9 ft thick, the cottonwood tree was guessed to be 150 years old. For a cottonwood tree, that's friggen ancient!!

I arrived on scene to a whole mess of fire fighters, open space staff, and county sheriffs all trying to assess what was going on, how it happened, and how to put out the smoldering tree. I was given a hard hat and told to start documenting.

This series of shots are of the hardworking staff of Boulder County and other local fire departments working hard to put this fire out quickly.