Wildfires are breaking out all over Colorado!
And the firestorm…
Has displaced thousands.
[via The Extinction Protocol]June 27, 2012 – COLORADO – Firefighters again will battle inferno-like conditions on Wednesday as they try to tame an explosive wildfire that has already chased some 32,000 residents from their homes near Colorado Springs, Colorado. “This is a firestorm of epic proportions,” Richard Brown, the Colorado Springs Fire chief, said late Tuesday.
Winds gusting to 65 mph through mountain canyons blew the wildfire through containment lines into northwest Colorado Springs on Tuesday afternoon. Gov. John Hickenlooper surveyed the Waldo Canyon Fire, telling reporters it was a difficult sight to see. “There were people’s homes burned to the ground. It was surreal,” he said late Tuesday night. “There’s no question, it’s serious. It’s as serious as it gets.” The 6,200-acre fire remained only 5% contained. Officials labeled it as exhibiting “extreme fire behavior. The fire conditions could not be worse,” said Anne Rys-Sikora, spokeswoman for a multi-agency fire response team. “It is like a convection oven out there.” Colorado Springs set a record high of 101 on Tuesday as firefighters contended with brutal conditions, including ash falling on highways and neighborhoods. Officials rushed in crews and aerial equipment in a bid to slow the fire. The forecast stays hot and dry for the foreseeable future, with daytime highs not falling out of the 90s until early next week, according to the National Weather service. Dave Barjenbruch, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Boulder, said the past week has been hellish across Colorado. “Even in the foothills, where most of the fires are going on, most days have been in the single-digit humidity,” he said. -CNN[Read More]
Can you imagine how think with smoke the air is there?
Talk about hazardous breathing conditions for the brave men and women fighting the fire monsters.
Too bad they can’t get a hand on THIS (below) new scientific technology:
[via Gizmodo] Scientists Invent Particles That Will Let You Live Without Breathing ~ by Jesus Diaz
This may seem like something out of a science fiction movie: researchers have designed microparticles that can be injected directly into the bloodstream to quickly oxygenate your body, even if you can’t breathe anymore. It’s one of the best medical breakthroughs in recent years, and one that could save millions of lives every year.
The invention, developed by a team at Boston Children’s Hospital, will allow medical teams to keep patients alive and well for 15 to 30 minutes despite major respiratory failure. This is enough time for doctors and emergency personnel to act without risking a heart attack or permanent brain injuries in the patient.
The solution has already been successfully tested on animals under critical lung failure. When the doctors injected this liquid into the patient’s veins, it restored oxygen in their blood to near-normal levels, granting them those precious additional minutes of life.
Particles of fat and oxygen
The particles are composed of oxygen gas pocketed in a layer of lipids, a natural molecule that usually stores energy or serves as a component to cell membranes. Lipids can be waxes, some vitamins, monoglycerides, diglycerides, triglycerides, phospholipids, or—as in this case—fats.
These fatty oxygen particles are about two to four micrometers in size. They are suspended in a liquid solution that can be easily carried and used by paramedics, emergency crews and intensive care personnel. This seemingly magic elixir carries “three to four times the oxygen content of our own red blood cells.”
Similar solutions have failed in the past because they caused gas embolism, rather than oxygenating the cells. According to John Kheir, MD at the Department of Cardiology at Boston Children’s Hospital, they solved the problem by using deformable particles, rather than bubbles:
We have engineered around this problem by packaging the gas into small, deformable particles. They dramatically increase the surface area for gas exchange and are able to squeeze through capillaries where free gas would get stuck.
Because sadly…
Especially since the conditions see no improvement in the foreseeable future?
They definitely need it.
This is so interesting. Fantastic new scientific technology. I am thinking maybe one day it would be possible to live on another planet with the these fat oxygen particles deposit in our body.