Colorado Fire Update
Sources report that Charlie Pellerin, often known as the "father of NASA's great observatories", has lost his home due to the #CalWoodFire in Colorado.
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) October 19, 2020
Keith’s note: As you all probably know there are a lot of space and planetary science and aerospace folks who live in Colorado. You can track the Boulder area fires here and Larimer county fires here.
That’s a huge bummer. I hope his insurance covers it, although merely being able to replace it doesn’t change the fact that losing your home and whatever possessions were still in it is awful.
I don’t know Dr. Pellerin, but it would also have been a very nice house. The CalWood fire is up in the mountains northwest of Boulder, and houses up there tend to be both nice and expensive. And it isn’t clear if the land will go back to its original condition. There has been speculation that the burned out, previously forested areas affected by these fires aren’t going to go back to being forested for a long time. I also hope he did have time to get most of his possessions out, but he may not have had much warning. The fire started and at first spread pretty quickly. And, not to point out the obvious, but having to evacuate in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis is just going to make things even harder for the people affected.
Charlie’s house was gorgeous. Been over there many times over the years.
So sorry to hear this sad news.