Colorado mayors describe wildfire devastation: Houses were ‘exploding right before our eyes’
Colorado mayors describe wildfire devastation: Houses were “exploding right before our eyes”
The mayors of two Colorado towns said wind-fueled wildfires devastated areas of their communities after residents scrambled to evacuate Thursday.
“We just witnessed incredible devastation around the town, and then also witnessed houses just exploding right before our eyes. It was one of the most disturbing situations I have ever been in,” said Mayor Clint Folsom of Superior, Colorado.
About 370 homes were destroyed in a single subdivision just west of the town of Superior, while another 210 homes may have been lost in Old Town Superior, according to authorities.
Folsom said evacuations had to happen within minutes.
“High windstorm events are not unusual in the Colorado winters in the front range and in other parts of the state. We have certainly had winds like this, although something of this strength was definitely out of the norm. I guess this was always a fear, you know, you would see dry grasses in the great open spaces that we have next to us, and, you know, we all cherish that space for views and hiking and biking trails, but when it gets so dry and then you combine that with wind and some fire, it just becomes a tragic recipe,” he said.
Mayor Ashley Stolzmann of Louisville, Colorado, said the official cause of the fires has not been determined but the early projection is due to downed power lines.
No deaths or missing people were reported immediately, and Stolzmann said emergency teams will be going through the town to locate residents.
Fast-moving Colorado fire was “upon people in a matter of minutes,” reporter says
The fires that burned more than 1,600 acres in Colorado were a “nightmare scenario,” Jesse Aaron Paul, a reporter with The Colorado Sun, told CNN.
“We don’t see wildfires that come through a suburban-type neighborhood. … I think this isn’t something anybody could’ve imagined that would even have happened,” Paul said.
“As the sun comes up and more images start to come out, this is going to be really hard today,” he said.
Thousands of families were evacuated quickly Thursday as hurricane-force winds descended upon the area.
Paul described what the scene was like as the fires unfolded: “It was really frantic and chaotic. These things just move so quickly, and it is hard to kind of comprehend 115-mile-per-hour winds. I was standing out in Boulder yesterday and it was pushing me over. I never experienced anything quite that bad in Colorado. We get high winds, but nothing like that. It was moving so quickly. … It was moving miles really quickly, just didn’t seem like such a bad fire, and then all of a sudden, it was just kind of upon people in a matter of minutes.”
Evacuation orders lifted for Broomfield, Colorado
From CNN’s Carma Hassan
All mandatory evacuation and pre-evacuation orders have been lifted in the city of Broomfield, Colorado, according to the city’s police department.
CNN previously reported that the Broomfield Detention Center was evacuated overnight due to the Marshall Fire.
The wind-driven fire has destroyed hundreds of structures and forced thousands of people to be evacuated in areas near Boulder.
University of Colorado football coach loses home in wildfire
From CNN’s Carma Hassan, Natalie Andes and Homero De La Fuente
University of Colorado Assistant Football Coach Mark Smith said his family lost “every material possession” in a wildfire that swept through Boulder County Thursday.
“Our home, cars, and everything we had in our home lost to the fires that ripped through our community. Thank you to those who reached out. Processing how to completely start over and grateful for our health,” Smith tweeted.
Smith was in his first year of coaching at the university, according to the university’s website. He became the university’s inside linebackers coach in February and previously worked at Long Island University in New York.
The University of Colorado, Boulder tweeted they “are heartbroken to see Thursday’s fires impact so many people in our region, likely including hundreds of CU Boulder faculty, staff and students.”
CNN Sports has reached out to the CU Buffs for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Boulder County officials are asking residents to stay out of evacuation zones
From CNN’s Carma Hassan
The Boulder Office of Emergency Management (OEM) is asking residents with property in the evacuation zones to continue to stay away from the area.
“We know that you are concerned about your home/belongings. We will notify you about re-entering your homes as soon as we can!” the office tweeted.
In a news update last night, Boulder OEM said, “First responders are working non-stop to keep everyone safe, even as they don’t know the status of their own homes in the area. No one will be allowed in the evacuated areas overnight. Please be patient as we do our best to protect everyone’s safety. The recovery process will be a long one, but we will get through this together one step at a time.”
The Boulder OEM information call center will reopen at 11 a.m. ET and the office is expected to hold a news conference at 12 p.m. ET today to provide an update on the wildfires.
The fast-moving wildfire began Thursday morning in Boulder County, burning hundreds of homes and forcing some 30,000 people across two communities to flee their homes.
Cold front producing snow moves into Boulder-area
From CNN’s Lucy Kafanov
A cold front “producing a heavier band of snowfall” has moved into the region where the Marshall Fire is burning, according to the National Weather Service office in Boulder.
“A cold front has moved into far northern Colorado this morning and it is helping to produce a heavier band of snowfall across the northern foothills. Widespread snow showers are ongoing across the mountains and high valleys despite the radar not being able to pick them up,” the weather service tweeted.
There is no way to attack Boulder fires head on, former fire chief says
Former Boulder, Colorado, Mayor Sam Weaver, who was also the former fire chief of Sugarloaf, told CNN’s New Day the fast-growing wildfires are challenging to contain head on.
“There is no way to be in front of a flame front like this,” he said about the fires.
“There is no way to attack it unless you have bulldozers that can dig a line that’s really wide because the really high wind speeds were driving embers and other flames forward so quickly that you had things, like the grass fire was moving really fast that got into trees near homes, you would see crowning. There is no way to attack it head on that’s absolutely true and even from the sides, you have to be careful with the swirling winds that are nearby,” Weaver said.
Weaver said his brother’s home is in the affected area and as the flames got closer, he helped load animals into trailers and pulled out photo albums and a computer from the home.
“By the time we left, say around 4 o’clock, the flames were a few hundred yards away, maybe 300 to 400 yards away and so we had to leave,” Weaver said. “We hope the house is OK, but have no word yet today.”
Weaver said that even though snow is on the way, if it falls too quickly it can further damage homes.
Hundreds of Colorado homes lost in fast-growing wildfires
From CNN’s Raja Razek, Steve Almasy and Caroll Alvarado
Hundreds of homes have been lost after two wildfires started and grew quickly Thursday as high winds whipped through the Front Range in Colorado, forcing tens of thousands of residents from their homes, the Boulder County sheriff said.
Sheriff Joe Pelle estimated 580 homes or other structures in and around Superior may have been lost.
A shopping center and a hotel in Superior also were engulfed by the flames.
“Historic” 80-100 mph winds, with gusts in the state as high as 115 mph, fed the wildfires that injured at least six people, prompted a hospital to send patients elsewhere and forced the evacuation of Superior and Louisville near Boulder.
The Marshall Fire had burned at least 1,600 acres and had spread east across Superior and Louisville, the sheriff said. The other fire is known as the Middle Fork Fire, but Pelle said it was attacked quickly and “laid down.” Authorities were keeping an eye on it, the sheriff added.
There were no immediate reports of civilian casualties or missing people, Pelle said. One law enforcement officer suffered a minor eye injury from blowing debris.
“I’d like to emphasize that due to the magnitude of this fire, the intensity of this fire and its presence in such a heavily populated area, we would not be surprised if there are injuries or fatalities,” he added.
Read more here.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/colorado-fires-update-12-31-2021/h_7b544f508df9ef0fbd6c267fb8897e31
