South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Misery deepens for fire survivors
991 homes destroyed as snowfall blankets Denver-area suburbs
LOUISVILLE, Colo. — Just two days after they fled a firestorm, residents of two Colorado suburbs gutted by flames slogged back home Saturday through nearly a foot of snow and single-digit temperatures to confront a new list of woes: frozen pipes and water damage, thanks to an abrupt turn in the weather.
The desperately needed snow arrived too late to save nearly 1,000 homes that were destroyed and the hundreds more damaged after a wildfire fueled by 105 mph wind gusts roared through parched grasses and into suburban cul-de-sacs of Louisville and Superior. The suburbs are filled with middle- and upper-middle-class subdivisions with shopping centers, parks and schools. The area is between Denver and Boulder, home to the University of Colorado.
With thousands of surviving homes still without power and gas Saturday, the
7-degree temperatures and
10 inches of snow that fell on the Boulder area touched off a frantic new battle against the weather.
With some roads still closed, residents hiked into their neighborhoods to drain their pipes and empty hot-water tanks. They scrambled to set up space heaters. People on vacation hundreds of miles away pleaded for help in shutting off the water and opening up their taps to prevent a flood.
A day after officials said there had been no immediate reports of deaths, officials from the Boulder County sheriff’s office said they believed that three people were missing.
Jennifer Churchill, a spokesperson for Boulder County, declined to identify the missing or say where they had last been seen.
“Snow will complicate what we can do today, but we’re doing everything we can to find those missing folks,” Churchill said.
But family members identified one of them as Nadine Turnbull, 91, telling 9News that a relative had tried to rescue Turnbull from her home in Superior only to be turned back by flames engulfing the front and back doors.
Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle also said Saturday that investigators are still trying to find the cause of the blaze that erupted Thursday. Emergency authorities said Friday that utility officials found no downed power lines around where the fire broke out.
Pelle said authorities were pursuing a number of tips and had executed a search warrant at “one particular location.”
He declined to give details. Pelle said officials were organizing cadaver teams to search for the missing in the Superior area and in unincorporated Boulder County.
Seven people were injured in the wildfire, authorities said.
At least 991 homes were destroyed, Pelli said: 553 in Louisville, 332 in Superior and 106 in unincorporated parts of the county. He cautioned that the tally is not final.
President Joe Biden on Friday declared a major disaster in the area, ordering federal aid be made available to those affected. The blaze burned at least 9.4 square miles.
Nearly 13,000 households around Boulder were without natural gas Saturday, and 7,500 households had no power, according to Xcel Energy, the local utility provider. The company said electricity would be restored later Saturday but that natural gas would take several days.
The Town of Superior said it was shutting off water in the fire zone Saturday to prevent additional damage.
“This is disappointment on disappointment,” said Alli Bowdey, a nurse whose family was packed into a house with relatives after fleeing their Louisville home. On top of everything else, her husband tested positive for the coronavirus and was quarantining in a hotel Saturday.
“We just looked at each other in disbelief,” she said.
As the scale of the destruction came into clearer view Saturday, thousands of displaced families across the Boulder area began to confront questions about whether they would rebuild and how they would find temporary housing in a place confronting a stark shortage of homes and an affordability crisis that has already priced many young families out of Louisville and Superior.
Even as Bowdey’s husband, a property manager, fights off COVID-19 at a hotel, he has been inundated with 200 requests for housing from families who have no place to go, she said. “It kind of hits you every so often that this is not just weeks and months — this is years.”
Clint Folsom, mayor of Superior, said finding longterm housing for so many families was the next emergency.
While his home survived the fire, his 76-year-old mother’s home burned to the ground, as did two homes owned by his sister-in-law.
“We’ve got hundreds and hundreds of people who are going to need housing,” Folsom said. “That’s going to be the challenge.”
Cathy Glaab found that her home in Superior had been turned into a pile of charred and twisted debris. It was one of seven houses in a row that were destroyed.
“The mailbox is standing,” Glaab said, trying to crack a smile through tears. She added sadly, “So many memories.”