Neighborhood is focus of fire inquiry
LOUISVILLE, Colo. — Investigators looking for the cause of the Colorado wildfire that destroyed nearly 1,000 homes have narrowed their search to a sparsely populated neighborhood near Boulder where a passerby captured video of a burning shed on the day the fire began, authorities said.
“The fire originated somewhere in that neighborhood,” Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said at a news briefing Sunday. He said authorities did not know whether the burning shed started the larger fire or whether the shed caught fire as a result of other flames.
Experts say that the winter fire was rare but that similar events will become more common as climate change warms the planet. The inferno broke out unusually late in the year after months of drought.
No downed power lines were found in the area being investigated, according to the county’s Office of Emergency Management.
Meanwhile, teams continued searching Monday for two people who were missing, and survivors combed through the charred remnants of their homes for whatever was left.
Crews were looking for a woman in the town of Superior and a man from nearby Marshall. Other investigators were trying to determine if the missing made it out but did not contact family or friends, Pelle said.
Although homes that burned to the foundations were still smoldering in some places, the blaze was no longer considered an immediate threat — especially with frigid temperatures and a blanket of snow that fell Saturday.
Most of the 991 buildings destroyed were homes. The blaze also burned through eight businesses at a shopping center in Louisville. In neighboring Superior, 12 businesses were damaged.
The two towns are about 20 miles northwest of Denver and have a combined population of 34,000.