Home Care In Golden, CO

By Meteorologist Briana Waxman

(CNN) — Dangerous fire weather conditions were underway in Colorado and Wyoming’s foothills that had forecasters using the most dire language possible to characterize Friday’s fire threat.

“This is a Particularly Dangerous Situation that poses a significant threat to life and property in the event of a wildfire start,” the so-called PDS red flag warnings issued by the National Weather Service offices in Boulder, Colorado, and Cheyenne, Wyoming, said.

It’s the first-ever PDS red flag warning issued in Colorado. The rare warnings are in effect for parts of the state’s foothills, including parts of Boulder and Jefferson counties, and Wyoming’s Laramie County, until Friday night.

“Residents are urged to assemble an emergency supply kit and know their evacuation routes,” the warnings said. “In some cases, safe and timely evacuation may not be possible should a fire approach.”

The alerts warn of extreme and erratic wildfire behavior, including rapid wildfire spread, for any wildfires that start in a combination of very strong winds, extremely dry air and near-record warmth.

Winds are forecast to roar continuously at 45 to 55 mph with stronger gusts of 80 to 100 mph occurring well into the evening.

These dangerous winds began early Friday afternoon. Winds gusted over 70 mph in downtown Boulder, Colorado, while multiple gusts of 75 to 95 mph occurred in the nearby foothills. A gust of 106 mph was recorded near Gold Hill, less than 10 miles west of Boulder.

A public safety power shutoff went into effect Friday morning for Xcel Energy customers in Colorado over fears the destructive winds could down power lines and start fires. Some residents are still without power due to a public safety power shutoff on Wednesday during another extreme windstorm. More than 80,000 Xcel Energy customers were without power in total by early Friday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us.

The Storm Prediction Center also upgraded its fire weather forecast for the area to Level 3 of 3, extremely critical for Friday, the most severe level.

The extremely critical area is for more than 600,000 people, including those in Fort Collins and Boulder in Colorado and Cheyenne in Wyoming.

Winds will be weaker in a Level 2 of 3 critical fire weather zone that spans much of the Interstate 25 corridor and adjacent foothills of Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska, but very dry air and dry fuels could still allow fires to spread here quickly.

Dry conditions could persist well into the evening, potentially extending the duration of dangerous fire weather conditions across the region.

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After another disappointing season on offense, the Minnesota Gophers are shaking up the coaching staff with the departure of co-offensive coordinator and longtime wide receivers coach Matt Simon, while former Minnesota stars, running back Mohamed Ibrahim and wide receiver Isaac Fruechte, have been added to the coaching staff.

Ryan Burns of 247Sports and Andy Greder of the Pioneer Press were the first to break the stories, with Greder saying Ibrahim has been hired as Minnesota's running backs coach, while Fruechte enters the fray as the wide receivers coach.

With Simon out, the offensive coordinator job is solely in the hands of Greg Harbaugh Jr., who has been leading the offense since 2023. Since then, Minnesota hasn't finished better than 80th in the nation in scoring, and they've been outside the top 100 in total offense each season.

Simon has coached alongside P.J. Fleck for nearly a decade, having joined Fleck's staff as a wide receivers coach at Western Michigan in 2014. He stayed with the Broncos through the 2016 season, then joined Fleck at the University of Minnesota in 2017.

He was the wide receivers coach at Minnesota in 2017 and 2018 before being promoted to a role as the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach in 2019. He's held the title of co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach since 2020.

Before his Minnesota and Western Michigan days, Simon, who is a native of Farmington, Minn., had coaching jobs at Northern Illinois, St. Thomas (Minn.), and Rutgers.

Minnesota's passing game has been underwhelming outside of the 2019 season that saw the 11-win Gophers win the Outback and set numerous passing records as quarterback Tanner Morgan connected routinely with Tyler Johnson and Rashod Bateman, who rank first and seventh in Gophers history in receiving yards. Johnson and Bateman are now in the NFL.

Simon also oversaw the careers of Daniel Jackson and Chris Autman-Bell, who rank fourth and ninth, respectively, in Minnesota receiving yards history.

Ibrahim and Fruechte were Minnesota stars

Ibrahim, whose NFL career never panned out due to injuries after brief stints with the Lions and Vikings, returns to the school where he owns the all-time rushing record with 4,668 yards and 53 touchdowns.

Ibrahim was the running backs coach at Kent State this season. The Golden Flashes averaged 2.9 yards per carry this season, including former Gophers tailback Jordan Nubin carrying the ball 79 times for 253 yards and one touchdown.

Freuchte only had 50 receptions for 702 yards and three touchdowns in three years (2012 to 2014) with the Gophers, but he was a prep standout and two-time state champion at small school powerhouse Caledonia in southeastern Minnesota. He played at Rochester Community and Technical College before joining the Gophers, and then had opportunities on the practice squads of the NFL's Vikings and Lions.

Freuchte has been coaching since 2018, including this season as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at North Dakota. The Fighting Hawks finished seventh in the Missouri Valley Football Conference in passing offense (192.4 yards per game), but they were fourth in total offense (387.3 yards per game) and points (32.9 points per game).

More Gophers coverage

Colorado restaurant owners say the outage tied to Xcel Energy's Public Safety Power Shutoff is forcing costly, last-minute decisions during what is typically one of their busiest weeks of the year.

Xcel now says the shutoff is expected to remain in effect through 10 p.m. Friday, with outages continuing into Sunday. Power is expected to return for the majority of customers by 10 p.m. on Saturday. Once conditions improve, crews will begin restoration during daylight hours after required safety inspections.

But for local restaurants in Golden, the timing could not be worse.

"This is actually my busiest week, historically," said Brandon Bortles, owner of Nosu Ramen and Abejas. "Between the holidays and (Colorado School of) Mines' graduation, this was potentially a really good weekend. Instead, we're losing revenue in our busiest week."

After losing power Friday morning, restaurants coordinated efforts to keep food from spoiling. Bortles said multiple businesses ran generators while others shared cold storage space, including a refrigerated truck secured by Woody's Pizza.

"They really banded together," Bortles said. "We collectively moved food around to keep everything cold and keep it safe for guests."

Despite those efforts, he estimates restaurants could still lose 20 to 30 percent of their inventory, even with generators and refrigeration in place.

"We worked our tails off Wednesday, and we did the same today," he said. "But there's still going to be loss."

Outside Woody's Pizza, a refrigerated truck hummed as staff rushed food inside.

"This truck is a Hail Mary," said John Bortles, owner of Woody's Pizza and Brandon's brother. "We thought we were going to have power through the weekend. When it went out again early this morning, we started making phone calls."

Bortles said their food distributor delivered the truck on short notice, allowing Woody's to store its own inventory while sharing space with neighboring restaurants.

"If food gets out of temperature long enough, it's ruined and could get people sick," he said. "We just want to keep the food out of the trash and keep people safe."

The truck will need refueling every 48 hours and could operate for several days if outages continue.

Xcel Energy says it does not reimburse customers for spoiled food or compensate businesses for lost revenue, including during Public Safety Power Shutoffs.

"Xcel Energy does not reimburse customers for spoiled food caused by outages," the company said. "Xcel Energy also does not compensate businesses for lost revenue during a power outage…including Public Safety Power Shutoffs, which we may carry out in periods of high wildfire risk to help keep the public and our communities safe."

Brandon Bortles said many restaurant owners have also been told their insurance policies do not cover losses tied to PSPS outages.

"Our insurance has told us this does not fall under business interruption," he said. "That's devastating. This is economically devastating."

Both owners said they understand wildfire concerns, but believe small businesses are bearing the brunt of the impact.

"I don't want to diminish fire danger," Brandon Bortles said. "Climate change is real. But this isn't just a business stress, this is a community stress."

John Bortles worries for employees who are now missing paychecks.

"We've got about 100 people on our staff that are out of work right now," he said. "They're trying to buy their kids presents. They're losing shifts. There's nobody coming to save them."

As Golden waits for power to return, both owners urged residents to support local businesses when they reopen.

"Small businesses have been struggling for years," Brandon Bortles said. "Stuff like this can be a killer. When we're back open, come help us out."

As intense winds swept through Colorado, Xcel Energy opted to shut off power to areas across the state that were at a higher risk for wildfires. Some areas lost power for multiple days, affecting many local businesses at the height of the holiday season.

On a Friday night the week before Christmas, downtown Golden should be packed. But the shops and restaurants were closed down, and holiday shoppers and diners were nowhere to be found. A restaurant working to save its food and a coffee shop washing dishes with a headlamp were the sights earlier in the day.

In Golden, everyone is adapting the best they can. But sometimes the simplest thing you can do is open your doors and hope people will come in.

It's the 14th holiday season for the Red Wagon gift shop in the heart of downtown Golden. Although the lights were off and the credit card machine wasn't working, the shop remained open. Owner Susan Lusk said her business relies on holiday shoppers.

"Usually this is the week that we do our biggest sales of the year," said Lusk.

As the clock continues to tick, the days before Christmas are running out. Lusk said the bad weather will put a dent in the shop's profits this year.

"December will probably be about 20% less than what it normally is just because of this week," she added.

But Lusk is hopeful the community will show up to shop when the power returns.

"Everybody really wants small businesses to succeed," said Lusk. "I think they'll be back en force."

In a nearby neighborhood, Golden resident Casey Brown and his family are adapting as well.

"I'm able to plug in this little adapter from Best Buy and plug in an extension cord," said Brown, who can run power from his electric vehicle to fuel life's little luxuries.

The Browns sent an email out to their neighbors with an open invitation to come over for a cup of coffee or a charge. While the community is trying to adapt, they're also trying to support each other in the meantime.

"We do feel a little guilty," said Brown. "We'd love to help our neighbors, though, if anyone needs some help. But we know it's been hard."

Residents and businesses in Golden are bracing for a prolonged power outage after Xcel Energy confirmed a Public Safety Power Shutoff will begin Friday at 5 a.m., driven by what city officials say is a worsening and potentially dangerous wind event.

According to the City of Golden, winds are expected to last 12 to 15 hours, with gusts exceeding 90 mph, significantly increasing wildfire risk across the area. Officials warn residents not to expect power to be restored on Friday and to prepare for outages that could stretch through the weekend and possibly into Monday.

The city says that even after the winds die down, forecast around 6 p.m. Friday or later, Xcel crews must wait for safer conditions and conduct required daylight visual inspections before restoring power.

For Golden resident Patrick Kenny, the warning came as a surprise after weathering Wednesday's outage with his family, including his two-and-a-half-year-old son, Roberto.

"It got cold last night, but we did okay," Kenny said. "We've got a little generator and a gas stovetop, so we were still cooking and had the essentials."

Kenny said the family didn't realize another outage was guaranteed - or that it could last several days.

"I did not realize that," he said when told power may not return until Monday. "So all the way through the weekend could be exciting."

Despite the inconvenience, Kenny said he understands the reasoning behind planned shutoffs.

"With the Broomfield fires and the ones in California, we're just playing it safe," he said. "They don't want an incident like that. It's okay."

At Ace Hardware, shift supervisor Gary Schiel said the rush began earlier this week and intensified as the reality of the outage set in.

"People are looking for flashlights that aren't rechargeable," Schiel said. "We're pretty well sold out."

Batteries, propane heaters and generators have also been in high demand, with many items now unavailable.

"If you didn't prepare, you're kind of in trouble," Schiel said. "People are disappointed when we tell them we don't have generators and they might have trouble finding one."

Schiel said he hasn't seen a surge like this before.

"We haven't had a power outage like this," he said.

Despite low inventory, Ace Hardware in Golden will remain open using a standalone generator to operate registers.

Golden officials are urging residents to limit travel, check on neighbors, and prepare for cold conditions and extended outages.

The city will provide updates at scheduled times on social media and its website.

Officials say additional alerts may be issued as conditions change.