The winter wildfires
Colorado in flames after drought... but snow’s on the way
ABLAZE amid clouds of choking smoke, these are some of the hundreds of properties destroyed by unprecedented wildfires raging through the US state of Colorado.
Tens of thousands have fled as the flames, fanned by 105mph winds, burned in Boulder County, north of Denver.
Officials warned of deaths and injuries as the blazes, thought to have started when power lines were toppled by the wind, spread through areas desiccated by a historic years-long drought.
The only hope of relief is that heavy snow is forecast for the next two days. Evacuations were ordered for the city of Louisville and neighbouring town of Superior, home to 34,000 between them. A hotel, shopping centre and an apartment complex in Superior were all engulfed yesterday.
Around 600 homes had been razed by yesterday. Experts said the winds and lack of rain were unheard of for December.
The high winds also stopped firefighting aircraft from taking off to tackle the blazes, including one which spanned two-and-a-half square miles. At least one emergency worker and six others were taken to hospital with burns.
Patrick Kilbride, 72, was at work in a hardware store when he heard the order to evacuate, The Denver Post reported.
He raced home but was unable to save anything other than his car and the clothes he was wearing. His dog and cat both perished.
‘It’s ashes,’ he said of the home he has lived in for three decades. ‘It’s just a strange feeling to go from having everything to make your life comfortable to having nothing. It’s all gone. I’m going to head back to my truck and feel sorry for myself.’
Another resident, Patti Holtz, said: ‘The ditches and the trees, they’re all up in flames. There’s embers everywhere. So it makes me very frightened, with the wind, that it’s going to continue to spread to other homes.’