Colorado fire kills 1, destroys 346 homes
COLORADO SPRINGS (AP) — A raging Colorado wildfire that forced tens of thousands to flee has left at least one person dead and destroyed an estimated 346 homes this week, making it the most destructive fire in the state’s history, officials said Thursday.
Police chief Pete Carey said the remains of one person were found in a home where two people had been reported missing. He didn’t elaborate or take questions after making the announcement late Thursday.
From above, the fire’s destruction is painfully clear: Rows and rows of houses were reduced to smoldering ashes even as some homes just feet away survived largely intact.
At a meeting Thursday night, Rebekah and Byron Largent learned from lists distributed by authorities that their home was among those that burned Tuesday, their daughter Emma’s first birthday.
“Our minds just started sifting through all the memories of that house that we lost that can’t be replaced,” Rebekah Largent said. She remembered her wedding dress, a grandmother’s china, the rocking chair where the couple would sit with Emma.
“Our little girl, our oneyear-old daughter, that’s the house that she’s lived in the longest. It’s just really hard to have lost a lot of the memories connected to that, you know? They just burned,” she said.
On one street, all but three houses had burned to their foundations, said Ryan Schneider, whose home was still standing in a neighborhood where 51 others were destroyed.
“I was real happy at first. My wife was happy,” he said. “The emotion of seeing the other homes, though, was instant sadness.”
The aerial photos showing the scope of one of the worst
fires to hit the American West
in decades did little to help ease the concerns of many residents who still did not know the fate of homes.
Amid the devastation in the foothills of Colorado Springs, there were hopeful signs. Flames advancing on the US Air Force Academy were stopped and cooler conditions
could help slow the fire.
The fire was 15 percent contained Thursday night.
The cost of fighting the blaze had already reached $ 3.2 million.
Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach said the estimate of
346 homes could change. A fire in northern Colorado, which was still burning, destroyed 257 homes and until Thursday was the most destructive in state history.
For now, Bach said, the news of the destruction would make it very difficult for affected residents in the city about 60 miles south of Denver.
“This community is going to surround them with love and encouragement,” Bach said.