COLORADO SPRINGS — Winds in Colorado Springs today were high, creating a major fire concern. Earlier this morning, officials were warning people not to go outside or travel. Now they want people to be aware of their surroundings when they;re outside as loose or damaged branches could still fall.
"Obviously in Colorado Springs we're no stranger to this wind," said Ashley Franco with the Colorado Springs Fire Department. "We really just want to make sure that our community is understanding that we cannot have any open flames at all today, there are not any restrictions or burn bans in place. But it is incredibly important to understand how fast an open flame can spread".
You can check here to see updated numbers of how many customers are without power. Colorado Springs Utilities says they've freed crews from other projects to address outages, but the high winds affect them as well.
"It's important to recognize that for those repairs that require a bucket truck, the winds need to be under 35 miles an hour for us to put somebody up on those bucket trucks," said Jay Anderson with Colorado Springs Utilities.
In the 25 years that AJ Ruybal with A-Class Tree Services has been in the Colorado Springs area, he says these winds are some of the worst he's seen.
"Yeah, we've been getting calls since around 6am this morning," he told me. "So far it's going to take us at least two weeks to get caught up with what's coming our way".
Anyone who has a downed tree in their neighborhood can report it through the GO COS app.
A local businessman noticed a downed tree in Old Colorado City Monday and removed it for free.
WATCH: Local businessman removes downed tree for free
Because of the high winds, a street sign at the intersection of Garden of the Gods Road and North Chestnut Street almost blew off.
WATCH: Street sign almost blows off due to wind
Due to the high winds Monday, many schools in southern Colorado were closed.
WATCH: School closures in El Paso County due to high winds
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