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amheadlines Greta Kerkhoff
*Correction: A previous edition of this post incorrectly stated that a former “Aurora police officer was sentenced.” The officer is not part of the Aurora Police Department. They were formerly of the Greenwood Village Police Department.
Dinosaur fire update
The Dinosaur Fire, which started this past Friday near the National Center for Atmospheric Research building in Boulder, was 100% contained by Saturday evening around 6 p.m.
According to Boulder Reporting Lab, the first call about the fire came in around 11:20 a.m. There were no evacuations ordered or injuries reported. Helicopters and firefighters on the ground worked to control the flame. As of 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, the fire was officially contained, having burned approximately 5 acres.
The NSF NCAR Mesa Lab is reopened to staff and the public today.
While the cause of the fire remains unknown, the burning coincided with a heat wave and severe drought in Boulder County. This year’s May and June was one of Boulder’s driest on record.
Arapahoe County wildfire
There was also a fire in eastern Arapahoe County over the weekend.
The blaze started Saturday, burning 1,150-acres and destroying several homes. A total of eight structures were affected by the blaze, according to the Colorado Sun.
No one was hurt in the blaze, which was contained at about 3 p.m. the same day it started. Fire departments from across the Denver metro area responded. Airplanes and helicopters were also dispatched to help douse the flames.
The fire was one of several burning in Colorado over the weekend, amidst dry conditions and a heatwave.
Former Greenwood Village* police officer sentenced in shooting death
A Greenwood Village Police officer has been sentenced to two years in prison for the murder of 17-year-old Peyton Blitsen.
39-year-old officer Adam Holen was off-duty and drunk back in 2021 when he confronted a group of teenagers about their alleged reckless driving in an Aurora neighborhood. Holen shot and killed Blitstein during the confrontation. That’s according to The Denver Post.
The arrest comes in the midst of anti-police brutality protests in Aurora, in response to the murder of 37-year-old Kilyn Lewis at the hands of another Aurora police officer.
Colorado drowning deaths on track to exceed 2022 record totals
As waters continue to rise in Colorado’s reservoirs and rivers, so do the number of fatalities.
At least 32 people have died in Colorado’s reservoirs and rivers since March 28 of this year. That’s according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
Officials reported 42 water-related fatalities in Colorado in 2022, a record high for the state.
The Colorado River is extraordinarily high right now, due to warm temperatures and the release of water from a half-dozen reservoirs across the Western Slope that intend to help endangered fish.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife urge anyone recreating on flat or moving water to use Personal Floatation Devices, or PFD’s Of the people who died while recreating on a watercraft, six were not wearing a PFD, and the two people who died after slipping into the water were wearing their PFDs improperly.
Boulder High graduate wins mountain biking World Cup race
2020 Boulder High alum, Bjorn Riley, won a pair of races at the Mountain Bike World Cup in Les Gets, France, last weekend.
According to the Daily Camera, Riley won the men’s under-age-23 short track and cross-country Olympic-distance races.
Riley will next race at the elite national championship in Pennsylvania at the end of July, then at the U23 world championship in late August.
Denver breaks record high temperatures
Denver hit record-high temperatures all weekend, as a heat wave continues to roast the Front Range.
Temperatures exceeded 100 degrees on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
The last time Denver broke July temperature records for three consecutive days was in 2005.
