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Vast scale of Colorado wildfires becomes clear as residents finally return to survey what's left of their homes
After being forced to evacuate four days ago, the residents near Boulder in Colorado will have the chance today to see whether anything but rubble remains of their homes.
Wildfires have raged in the area and authorities demanded that over 3,500 people were evacuated from about 1,000 houses.
At least 135 of those homes have been destroyed, making the blaze one of the most destructive in Colorado's history.
The sheer scale of the damage caused by the fires can be seen in the images below, where a tennis court is shown surrounded by charred woodland and rubble where houses once stood.
Ruined: An aerial photograph shows the scale of the destruction in Boulder, Colorado
Evacuation orders are set to be lifted today in four neighborhoods in the foothills west of Boulder, and residents are expected to return to see if their properties are still standing.
News that some people will get to go home four days after the blaze erupted drew applause from the crowd of about 600 at a public meeting last night.
Yesterday firefighters were able to contain about 10 per cent of the blaze that has scorched about 7,100 acres, or roughly 10 square miles. But eight people remain missing.
It was the first time officials reported being able to hold any part of the 20-mile-long fire perimeter.
The reported loss of homes surpasses that of the 2002 Hayman fire in southern Colorado that was hitherto the most destructive in the state's history.
That fire destroyed 133 homes and 466 outbuildings over 138,000 acres in a more sparsely populated area that includes national forest land.
The Boulder fire's toll is likely to rise as firefighters get a clearer picture of the damage. Four people remained unaccounted for, but no deaths or injuries have been reported.
The cause of the fire is being investigated.
'I understand people are angry, they're anxious, they want to go home,' Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said during the public meeting. 'Please be patient with us.'
The anger that has flared as homeowners have shouted questions at officials during news briefings was absent at Wednesday night's gathering.
People applauded when speakers mentioned the firefighters. Nine volunteer firefighters have lost their homes.
Firefighters took advantage of cooler temperatures and light rain to attack the wildfire Wednesday and air tankers dumped fire retardant on the flames. A total of 100,000 gallons of retardant has been used and firefighting costs are £1.37m so far.
Fire managers said as many as 500 firefighters and support personnel are at the fire and more are on the way.
Laura McConnell, spokeswoman for the management team, said crews are dealing with downed power lines, debris, poison ivy and rattlesnakes.
They also have to be watchful for propane tanks in the area.
Fire officials tackling the wildfire that has taken hold of a rugged canyon in the Colorado foothills say eight people are reported missing.
The 7,100 acre wildfire broke out on Monday morning in a canyon north-west of Boulder. Police said it did not appear to be arson.
Boulder County Sheriff's Commander Rick Brough revealed that several of the missing people did not vacate their property in time.
Protection: A slurry bomber drops retardant to protect buildings from the wildfire, which has cased 3,000 people to be evacuated from the Boulder area
Evacuated: Some of the people who fled the blaze in Boulder watch as a massive plume of smoke rises from the canyon
Out of control: High winds and dry conditions allowed the fire to take hold, and emergency services battled through the night to contain the blaze
Rubble: Frustrated with not being allowed back into his home this man who did not want to give his name, crossed police lines and hiked in, hoping to find his three cats
Yesterday, we reported the horrifying news that a man had opened fire on a group of middle school children at Deer Creek Middle School in Littleton, Colorado. Click here to read the initial report.
More information has since emerged regarding the suspect. He is 32-year-old Colorado resident Bruco Strongeagle Eastwood, and he has a violent and criminal history. This includes domestic violence, assault, menacing, driving under the influence and motor vehicle theft. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance today at 10AM to face multiple charges.
Reports say Eastwood has been to Deer Creek school before, and went inside before coming back out to start shooting. No motive has yet been hypothesized as to why he would target the children. The two children who were shot are pictured here.
13-year-old Reagan Weber was shot in the arm and has since been released from the hospital. 14-year-old Matt Thieu was shot in the chest and, as of late last night, remained in critical condition. He is now at Children's Hospital in Denver.
Steve Potter, Deer Creek bus driver, witnessed the heroics of math teacher Dr. David Benke as he tackled the gunman while reloading, preventing him from getting off any more shots. He subdued him until police arrived.
"Dr. Benke was out there at the time the school was being let out. It looked to me like he heard the shot and decided to react accordingly," said Potter. "There was a little bit of a wresting match for about 5 seconds or so," before Benke had disarmed the gunman.
"As many school districts have learned, you can prepare, you can train, but I don't think you're every really prepared for something like this to happen," Lynn Setzer with the Jefferson County School District said. "In terms of being ready, we train our staff members for a number of different scenarios. This is one of them."
"It's hard to explain why they would target innocent victims," said Jefferson County Sheriff Ted Mink, who was among the hundreds of law enforcement agents who responded to the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. "It's just mind-boggling to me why someone would do that."
The gunman was walking through a middle school parking lot and taking shots at students with a hunting rifle as terrified teenagers ran for their lives. He had just wounded two students and seemed ready to unleash more violence when a math teacher named David Benke sprung into action.
Police gather outside Deer Creek Middle School in Littleton, Colo., where a gunman shot two students and was tackled by a math teacher.
Math teacher David Benke was being hailed as a hero for tackling the suspected school gunman.
Benke confronted the 32-year-old gunman, tackled him and pinned him to the ground with the help of another teacher, stopping what could have been a much more violent encounter in a city all too familiar with tragic school shootings. The shooting on Tuesday afternoon occurred less than three miles from where the Columbine High School massacre happened nearly 11 years ago.
"Unfortunately he got another round off before I could grab him," Benke said. "He figured out that he wasn't going to be able to get another round chambered before I got to him so he dropped the gun and then we were kind of struggling around trying to get him subdued."
The two students survived and one remained hospitalized.
Police said they aren't immediately sure about what motivated Bruco Strongeagle Eastwood to target Deer Creek Middle School just after classes had ended for the day. Eastwood has an arrest record in Colorado dating back to 1996 for menacing, assault, domestic violence and driving under the influence, and he is believed to have a history of mental issues.
Sheriff thanks teacher Jefferson County Sheriff Ted Mink praised Benke and called him a hero, and the math teacher's status seems to be growing by the minute. A Facebook page called "Dr. David Benke.. A TRUE hero!" quickly picked up more than 1,000 fans by Wednesday morning.
Benke, the father of 7-year-old twins and a 13-year-old girl, fought back tears after Mink thanked him.
"Believe me when I say, I think he stopped what could have been a more tragic event than it was," Mink said.
The victims, students Reagan Webber and Matt Thieu, were both treated at Littleton Adventist Hospital, where spokeswoman Christine Alexander said Webber was later released. Thieu was transferred to The Children's Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition late Tuesday.
Student Steven Seagraves said he was about 10 feet away when an adult approached students and asked them: "Do you guys go to this school?"
When the students said they did, he shot them, Seagraves said.
Benke, a 6-foot-5 former college basketball player who oversees the school's track team, was monitoring the parking lot in the afternoon when he heard what he thought was a firecracker and began walking toward the noise.
"At first when I was walking over there, it was kind of what a teacher does," Benke said, still shaken hours after the shooting. "'Hey kid, what are you doing,' you know that kind of thing."
He said another teacher was quickly on the scene and both of them pinned the gunman to the ground. Eastwood was armed with a bolt-action rifle.
"I basically have my arms and legs wrapped around him, (the other teacher) has his forearm around his front and we were basically trying to get the guy to quit struggling."
"I talked to him while we were on the ground," Benke added. "I was underneath him and his face was pretty close to mine. I asked him, 'Why did you do this? Were you a student here?'
"He either didn't respond or his responses didn't make a whole lot of sense," Benke said.
Bus driver Steve Potter said he was about to pull away from the school with a full bus when he heard a loud bang that sounded like an M-80 firecracker. Students screamed when they spotted the man with a rifle, Potter told KMGH-TV.
"He looked like he was just kind of looking around for someone to shoot," he said.
Potter said he saw Benke grab the suspect so he and another man jumped on the gunman and helped hold him until police arrived.
Richard Heene arrives at his home in Fort Collins, Colo., on Thursday, November 12, 2009, after making bond on charges against him from the balloon boy hoax. He and his wife Mayumi are scheduled to enter guilty pleas in court on Friday on charges from the balloon boy hoax.
Richard Heene, right, and attorney David Lane arrive at district court in Fort Collins, Colo., on Friday, Nov. 13, 2009. Heene planned to plead guilty to a felony charge of attempting to influence a public servant and his wife Mayumi planned to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of false reporting, according to Richard's attorney, David Lane.
Mayumi, left, and Richard Heene arrive at district court in Fort Collins, Colo., on Friday, Nov. 13, 2009, with attorney Dave Lane, center.
Richard Heene, right, and attorney David Lane arrive at district court in Fort Collins, Colo., on Friday, Nov. 13, 2009. Heene planned to plead guilty to a felony charge of attempting to influence a public servant and his wife Mayumi planned to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of false reporting, according to Richard's attorney, David Lane.
Richard and Mayumi Heene arrive at their home in Fort Collins, Colo., on Thursday, November 12, 2009, after making bond on charges against them from the balloon boy hoax. They are both scheduled to enter a guilty plea in court on Friday.
The Colorado parents accused of pulling a spectacular hoax by reporting their son was aboard a runaway balloon pleaded guilty Friday to charges that could bring some jail time and probation.
Richard Heene pleaded guilty to knowingly and falsely influencing Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden, a felony, in the episode that sent law enforcement scrambling to rescue 6-year-old Falcon until he was found safe at the family home. Mayumi Heene pleaded guilty to knowingly filing a false report with emergency services, a misdemeanor.
Richard Heene told judge Stephen Schapanski he understood that he could have to pay restitution for the costs incurred by public agencies because of his actions. Local and federal authorities spent at least $62,000 pursuing the balloon and searching for 6-year-old Falcon after it landed.
Schapanski told Mayumi Heene that her plea doesn't automatically prevent any action by federal authorities regarding her immigration status; she is a Japanese citizen. Her attorney, Lee Christian, acknowledged that was the case but said avoiding a trial could reduce the consequences.
Chief deputy district attorney Andrew Lewis told the judge that prosecutors always intended to charge Mayumi Heene with a misdemeanor based on her cooperation with authorities and what he called her lower level of culpability in the incident. He insisted prosecutors never used the threat of deportation in her case — contrary to what Richard Heene's attorney David Lane has said.
Christian said the possibility of going to trial and risking a felony conviction was one of "many reasons" Mayumi Heene wanted to plead guilty.
Both attorneys said their clients had no plans to talk publicly at least until after their sentencing.
Prosecutors would like the Heenes to serve some time in jail, but the final decision will be made by Schapanski at a Dec. 23 sentencing hearing.
In the meantime, Lane said Richard Heene intends to seek employment with trips to New York and California, and Mayumi Heene plans to accompany him. The judge adjusted their bond to allow them to do so, as long as they report to probation services within seven days.
Lane told the judge that Richard Heene has an "employment opportunity" in New York. Lane declined to elaborate as he left the courtroom, and Heene waved off questions.
Business associates of Richard Heene said before the balloon incident Richard Heene was trying to pitch a TV series based on science. The Heenes are amateur storm chasers and had twice appeared on the ABC reality show "Wife Swap."
Mayumi Heene allegedly told investigators the balloon launch was a hoax aimed at promoting a possible reality television show. Neither she nor her husband discussed their intent during the court hearing and neither apologized.
RDF USA, which produces "Wife Swap," has said it was developing a show with the Heenes. The company said after the Oct. 15 launch that they had scrapped the plans.
Investigators found evidence two days after the launch that the Heenes were working with RDF, according to court documents released Friday.
It wasn't clear when RDF's plans were scrapped. The company didn't immediately respond Friday to phone and e-mail requests for comment.
Other production companies are steering clear of the Heenes.
"It's just too poisonous," said Irad Eyal, vice president of development at Endemol-owned True Entertainment, who does not plan to meet with Richard Heene. "I don't think anyone is going to want to meet with a man who shamed his family and children that way. In reality TV, there's a definite line you don't cross, and that's tormenting children."
Federal police present alleged members of the Mexican drug cartel "La Familia Michoacana," detained in a recent police operation, as they are presented to the press in Mexico City, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009. Suspects from from left to right are Rogelio Rivera, Orlando Tafoya, Juan Estrada Rodriguez, Jose Roberto de la Sancha, Juan Gabriel Cortez and Julio Enrique Aguilar.
Attorney General Eric Holder, second from left, speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009, to announce the largest single strike at a Mexican drug cartel operating in the U.S. _ the arrest of more than 300 people in a series of drug raids across the country. From left are, FBI Director Robert Mueller, Holder, Acting Drug Enforcement Administrator (DEA) Michele Leonhart and Acting Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) Director Kenneth Melson.
Map shows U.S. cities in which a series of drug raids resulted in the arrests of more than 300 people
Federal police escort handcuffed suspect Jose Roberto de la Sancha as he his presented to the press in Mexico City, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009. De la Sancha, detained along with five others in a recent police operation, is an alleged member of the Mexican drug cartel "La Familia Michoacana," according to police.
Federal police stand by handcuffed suspects Jose Roberto de la Sancha, right, and Juan Estrada Rodriguez as they are presented to the press in Mexico City, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009. De la Sancha and Rodriguez, detained along with four others in a recent police operation, are alleged members of the Mexican drug cartel "La Familia Michoacana," according to police.
U.S. authorities arrested 303 people Wednesday and Thursday in a nationwide sweep targeting the distribution network of La Familia, a fast-rising Mexican drug cartel known for its violence, messianic culture and control over the methamphetamine trade, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced Thursday.
More than 3,000 federal, state and local agents participated in the U.S. law enforcement operation, the largest mounted against a Mexican cartel, Holder said.
The raids "dealt a significant blow to La Familia's supply chain," Holder said, netting cash, drugs, weapons and vehicles in 19 states. But U.S. officials did not say whether any cartel leaders were caught. "With the increases in cooperation between U.S. and Mexican authorities in recent years, we are taking the fight to our adversaries," Holder said.
Arrests took place in 38 cities, from Boston to Seattle, with 77 made in Dallas. The effort involved the Drug Enforcement Administration; the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Charges include drug and gun trafficking and money laundering.
Analysts said the operation appeared designed to allay skepticism among Mexico's political leaders about the U.S. government's commitment to Mexico's crackdown on cartels. The drug-related violence has taken about 15,000 lives since President Felipe Calderón entered office in 2006. Mexican authorities have arrested 80,000 drug suspects, and Washington has responded with $1.4 billion in aid under the Merida initiative, but some in Mexico have grown frustrated with the U.S. market's continuing demand for illegal drugs.
"Many Mexican leaders have viewed the Merida initiative as too little and too late," said George W. Grayson, a Mexico specialist at the College of William and Mary who has written about La Familia, "and so Washington is trying to make clear that we are good faith, genuine partners in the war against drugs."
La Familia, the newest of Mexico's five major cartels, has become entrenched in many U.S. cities after flourishing in Mexico through entrepreneurial zeal, brutality and promises to spin drug profits into "divine justice," or social benefits for its impoverished home state.
La Familia opposes the sale of methamphetamine to Mexicans, for example, but is responsible for the "vast majority" of the lucrative drug entering the United States from Mexico, said Michele M. Leonhart, acting DEA administrator.
The cartel, based in the southwestern Mexico state of Michoacan, has also benefited from a splintering of older cartels, and its effort to gain social legitimacy is combined with a savage program to kill, coerce and corrupt security and government personnel, Mexican analysts said.
In Washington, Holder said that U.S. authorities have targeted La Familia for 44 months. Under the effort, called Project Coronado, the federal government has arrested 1,186 people and seized $32.8 million, 2,710 pounds of methamphetamine, 1,999 kilograms of cocaine, 29 pounds of heroin, 16,390 pounds of marijuana, 389 weapons and 269 vehicles.
U.S. authorities indicted, but did not arrest, La Familia's operational chief, Servando Gomez-Martinez -- known as La Tuta.
In the largest single strike at Mexican drug operations in the U.S., authorities arrested more than 300 people in a sting that demonstrates an upstart cartel's vast reach north of the border.
The tentacles of "La Familia" extend coast to coast and deep into America's heartland, with arrests announced Thursday in 38 cities from Boston to Seattle and from St. Paul, Minn., to Raleigh, N.C.
Drug deals went down in Oklahoma parking lots, suppliers were advised to weld drugs into tire rims for transport, and in the Dallas and Seattle areas, dozens of children were removed from houses where authorities found drugs, guns or cash derived from drug sales.
Perhaps more than any other cartel, La Familia projects a Robin Hood image. The Drug Enforcement Administration said the group is "philosophically opposed to the sale of methamphetamine to Mexicans, and instead supports its export to the United States for consumption by Americans."
Mexican police say the gang uses religion and family morals to recruit. The gang has hung banners in towns saying they do not tolerate drug use, or attacks on women or children.
One of the gang's alleged recruiters, detained last spring, ran drug rehabilitation centers, helping addicts to recover and then forcing them to work for the drug gang or be killed, according to Mexico Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna.
La Familia is rarely mentioned in the same breath as the handful of other Mexican gangs that control the flow of drugs into the United States, fueled by Colombian cocaine suppliers. The Sinaloa, Juarez, Gulf and Tijuana cartels have roots that go back many years, even decades.
But in its short history, La Familia is believed to have emerged as the biggest supplier of methamphetamine to the United States and, increasingly, a peddler of cocaine, marijuana and other drugs.
Complaints that were unsealed across the country portray an organization that spread deep into Middle America, down to small-time sales.
In Colorado, authorities seized 8 kilograms of cocaine, 3 pounds of methamphetamine and $313,785.
A federal grand jury has indicted 11 members or associates of La Familia from the Western Slope in Colorado, and six of them have been arrested so far, prosecutors said.
In Oklahoma, authorities seized about 20 pounds of methamphetamine, two pounds of cocaine, six weapons and several thousand dollars. They identified Ruben Garcia, 29, as a major supplier in the northeast part of the state.
Agents spotted Garcia and his partners dealing drugs over several months at restaurants, grocery stores and Wal-Mart parking lots in the Tulsa area, according to court documents. In one tapped phone call Oct. 9, Garcia counseled a supplier in Mexico who helped arrange a shipment in McAllen, Texas, that the easiest way to smuggle drugs is welded inside tire rims of vehicles.
Court records do not list an attorney for Garcia.
In North Carolina, targeted cells operated from the Raleigh area to the eastern cities of Rocky Mount and Greenville, a region with a large Hispanic population to help the targets blend in and quick access to three interstate highways. They made four arrests Wednesday but totaled 49 arrests over the past year.
In Nashville, after more than a year of surveillance, agents converged on a home when two people arrived in a Toyota Camry from Atlanta Aug. 14, according to a complaint. A search of the vehicle discovered hidden compartments that "contained nine similarly wrapped packages, each of which were the size of a kilogram of cocaine." One package tested positive for cocaine.
Inside the home, agents found drug ledgers, a money counter and a loaded pistol. At another home, they found about 50 pounds of marijuana, several loaded handguns and two bulletproof vests.
Texas Child Protective Services removed 20 children from houses in the Dallas area when authorities executed 44 search warrants, said James Capra, the DEA's special agent in charge in Dallas. All the homes where children were found had drugs, guns or cash derived from drug sales.
The sting reached into small towns hundreds of miles from Mexico.
Nine arrests were made in Monroe, Wash., with a population of about 16,000 and home to the state's largest prison about 25 miles northeast of Seattle. None seemed to be doing any retail drug dealing, Monroe police Cmdr. Steve Clopp said.
"I would say that they were well-integrated members of the community," Clopp said. "A lot of them keep up the everyday appearance of work and family."
In the Inland Empire, a cluster of east Los Angeles suburbs where 25 people were arrested and 156 pounds of methamphetamine seized, most suspects are illegal immigrants from Mexico who came to the United States to work for La Familia, said Stephen Azzam, DEA assistant special agent in charge in Riverside, Calif.
Methamphetamine was shipped from the Inland Empire, an area with three interstate highways, to cities including Atlanta and Chicago, Azzam said.
La Familia is known as unusually violent, even by Mexico's standards.
After the arrest of one of its leaders in July in Mexico, the cartel launched an offensive against federal forces, killing 18 police officers and two soldiers over a weekend. In the worst attack, 12 federal agents were slain and their tortured bodies piled along a roadside as a warning for all to see.
"They are one of the most violent, if not the most violent, cartel in Mexico right now," said Michael Braun, who retired as the DEA's chief of operations last year.
La Familia operates methamphetamine "superlabs" in Mexico that produce up to 100 pounds of the drug in eight hours, a sharp contrast to small-time labs in the United States that have supplied American addicts, said Braun.
The organization was founded around 2004 and really took off in 2006, Braun said.
The arrests in places such as Atlanta, Dallas and Los Angeles suggest that its U.S. distribution network is sophisticated, said Scott Stewart, an analyst at the Stratfor consultancy in Austin, Texas, who follows the Mexican drug trade.
"Those are beautiful interstate (highway) hubs," Stewart said. "It's looking they have ramped up very quickly."
Falcon Heene, with his mother, Mayumi, on Thursday after the boy turned out not to have been on a runaway balloon. Speculation about a hoax increased after a comment by the boy.
If it weren't for the fact that it was mildly horrifying to watch on live TV, the story would have seemed straight out of a Roald Dahl novel. Hoax or no hoax, the Heene family had the country captivated for the better part of Thursday -- all because of an empty floating balloon. For his second act, the would-be balloon pilot, Falcon (at far right), charms the nation by barfing on the "Today" show. Other reality TV families should take note -- this is how good drama is done.
Ryo Heene peeks from the front door of his family's Fort Collins home Friday, facing a group of reporters and photographers. The 8-year-old told journalists his dad was sleeping.
Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said it "seemed inconceivable" that Falcon — who spent hours running around his neighborhood and climbing on the family cars after emerging from hiding Thursday afternoon — could have been coached to sit still in his hiding space for so long.
"It seems much more likely that the boy was in fact frightened," Alderden said. "That seems like a credible story."
But Internet and television pundit speculation about the story only grew stronger Friday, and Alderden said investigators planned to re-interview the family to answer lingering questions and contradictions in the case.
He said the results of the Sheriff Office's investigation would be handed over to Larimer County's child-protection workers for a possible investigation of their own.
The Heenes, meanwhile, adamantly denied perpetrating a hoax during a string of televised media interviews Friday morning — including two in which a weary-looking Falcon vomited.
"This is not some kind of hoax," Richard Heene said on NBC's "Today" show.
"I'm repetitively getting asked this," he said. "What do I have to gain out of this? I'm not selling anything. I'm not advertising anything."
After the morning blitz, the Heenes cut off the media for the day, posting a sign on their door that read: "Thank you for all of your support. We are not taking any interviews any more. We are tired."
During a moment outside, the Heenes' 8-year-old son, Ryo, told reporters his dad was sleeping.
"My dad said he is tired of the show," the boy said.
One minute, President Obama was on the television, speaking about the rebirth of New Orleans, the usual array of citizenry behind him. In the next, he had been shoved aside by a live, breaking Grimm's fairy tale. And like all children's fables, it was at once horrifying and enchanting. This Story
* A Mystery Aloft, a Nation Riveted -- And One Grounded Balloon Boy * Balloon Boy: 'I Thought I'd Get in Trouble' * Balloon Lands With No Sign of Child
A rambunctious 6-year-old boy had climbed into a homemade helium balloon, the anchors announced gravely. Now he was floating so prettily 7,000 feet above Colorado, toward the heavens, at the mercy of the winds.
For three hours on a workaday Thursday, a mesmerized and helpless America watched this shiny silvery disc spin slowly against a brilliant blue sky with puffy white clouds. As it tipped this way and that, emergency vehicles trailed the balloon over two counties and 50 miles. The Air Force was alerted. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded planes. A Black Hawk chopper flew in close, blades slashing, to create a downwash to defeat a contraption that looked like a giant birthday party balloon.
There became one conversation, one America: What's the latest on the balloon boy? How are they going to get him down? Here came the parade of experts, in air balloon construction, mechanics and lore. How'd he get up there anyway?
At last, the jet stream set the shimmering orb gently down in the middle of a vast field.
Men in overalls ran to the balloon and stabbed it with shovels until it slowly crumpled.
A nation held its breath.
There was no boy.
Authorities scoured the ground for bits of broken plywood, a crumpled child.
And then, five hours after the horror began, someone interrupted the sheriff giving a breaking-news briefing: The boy had been found!
His name was Falcon, the perfect fairy-tale name. He had been hiding in a cardboard box in the rafters of the garage. "I played," the boy told reporters, "and then I went to sleep."
Falcon is the youngest of three boys who seem to have the kind of escapades few boys do these days. They live in Fort Collins, Colo., with their parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, who both have made appearances in a YouTube music video in which the boys starred. Mom rocked it out on guitar.
On the video, these are just the sort of boys who might hop a boxcar, who would figure out how to make the toilet explode. The Heene household was an adventureland, a place where Maurice Sendak met "Wife Swap." The family appeared earlier this year on the ABC reality show in which two mothers switch households and come away aghast at how other people live. On the Heenes' episode, a risk-taking, storm-chasing amateur scientist swapped his wife with a safety-obsessed family.
Richard Heene's MySpace page says he "flew into Hurricane Wilma to take magnetic field measurements" in 2005, and it was just an ordinary family vacation from the looks of it in a Denver television station report uploaded to YouTube. "This year I rode a motorcycle into a mesocyclone." He also said he'd like to meet "real aliens from outer space and conduct a full interview with them."
On Thursday, the trio of rascal brothers had been playing out back with the balloon their father built. Richard hollered at Falcon for climbing into a plywood box on the craft. When the balloon came untethered and floated away, Falcon was nowhere to be found.
Neighbor Bob Licko heard a commotion and saw two boys on the roof with a camera, he told the Associated Press. "One of the boys yelled to me that his brother was way up in the air."
The mother was distraught, Licko said, and the father was running around the house.
Falcon slept through it all, sound in his cardboard box. When he emerged, he gave the explanation that naughty boys have used for centuries.
"He scared me because he yelled at me," Falcon said. "That's why I went in the attic."
His father said he was really sorry and hugged his balloon boy.
The Heene family had one more video to post on YouTube. And the nation had, if nothing else, a memorable Wild Rumpus.
