“Unprecedented.” Experts are using terms such as “unnatural” to describe fire movement this season.

Kim Liberatore enjoyed Independence Day with confidence her treasured log cabin in Paradise Acres was no longer within reach of the Spring Creek fire after firefighters gouged trenches around the forested subdivision and filled them with reddish-orange fire retardant as the wildfire headed northeast, away from her 5,200-square-foot vacation home in Huerfano County.

But a day later, Liberatore’s hope turned to despair. The wildfire had seemingly broken the laws of nature by taking a complete 180-turn, scaled up, over and then down a mountain, raced through the middle of the night and destroyed her log cabin and about 40 other Paradise Acres homes.

“The fire engulfed the entire area. It was incredible,” Liberatore said Thursday.

Fire experts battling several wildfires across Colorado including the 416 fire north of Durango; Spring Creek fire in south central Colorado and the Lake Christine fire near Basalt are using terms like “unprecedented” and “unnatural” to describe fire dynamics this season. Wildfires typically burn uphill, not downhill. They lay down at night, not race faster than any man can run. A 300foot-high tsunami of wildfire scorched 20,000 acres of heavy tall pine forests and grassland into stumps and ash, said Ben Brack, spokesman for the 103,000 Spring Creek fire.

Roiling plumes of windproducing smoke clouds that rained embers over Paradise Acres’ carefully constructed fire defenses.

In Eagle County, the Christine Lake fire also defied expectations. “I have never seen this kind of fire behavior in my 40 years of fighting fires,” said Chief Scott Thompson, of the Basalt and Rural Fire Protection District.

Since the deadly Storm King Mountain fire in 1994 that killed 14 firefighters west of Glenwood Springs, fire districts and departments have prepared detailed wildfire attack plans.

Within minutes after 6 p.m. Tuesday, when two people ignited the wildfire at a shooting range near Christine Lake, a dozen agencies had been called and were responding rapidly to the fire.

Thompson said fire crews closely followed their firefighting blueprint, but then the fire did the unthinkable: “It went down valley towards Missouri Heights. We tried our best to catch this thing. Unfortunately, with the dry fuels and the winds we didn’t stand a chance.”

Three homes were destroyed and the wildfire blew up from more than 300 acres to around 2,700 acres.