SUPERIOR (Colorado, US), Jan 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A fast-spreading wildfire that tore through several Colorado towns – laying waste to entire neighborhoods “in the blink of an eye”, according to the governor – had largely burned itself out on Friday, with heavy snow expected to douse any remaining embers.
At least 500 homes were thought to have been destroyed as the blaze took hold of the town of Superior, just outside the state’s biggest city Denver, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee, but there were no deaths reported so far.
Shocking aerial footage shows whole streets as little more than piles of smoking ash; a destruction that appears almost total but that somehow left one or two homes incongruously untouched.
“This was a disaster in fast motion … over the course of half a day. Many families having minutes to get whatever they could – their pets, their kids – into the car and leave,” state Governor Jared Polis said. “Just as in the blink of an eye.”
Downed power lines are believed to have sparked grassfires in the tinder-dry landscape that were then fanned by winds gusting at more than 160km an hour on Thursday.
At least 33,000 people in the towns of Superior and Louisville were told to flee, many doing so with little more than the clothes on the backs.
Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle told a press conference on Friday that he had seen swathes of the town utterly destroyed, while other areas had been spared.
“We won’t have final numbers until late tonight or tomorrow, but we are fully expecting this to be 500 or more homes that were lost,” he said.
A powerful storm system bringing heavy snowfall was blowing into Colorado on Friday.
Up to a 30cm of snow is expected in some parts of the state, in a blizzard that should help to extinguish the fires, which have largely burned themselves out through lack of available fuel now that the winds have dropped.
Around 2,400 ha were affected, much of it in urban and suburban areas. Homes, shopping centers and hotels were impacted.
Colorado media outlets reported a handful of people had been treated for burn injuries, but there were no reports of any deaths.
Like much of the American West, Colorado is in the grip of a years-long drought that has left the area parched and vulnerable to wildfire. — NNN-AGENCIES
