Wind-whipped wildfires devour hundreds of homes in Colorado

Hurricane-force winds fuelled wildfires near Boulder, Colorado, destroying hundreds of homes, overwhelming firefighters and forcing the evacuation of entire drought-stricken towns.

More than 500 dwellings were engulfed in flames on Thursday, Boulder County sheriff Joe Pelle reported at a news briefing, warning there could be casualties. Flames also gutted a large hotel.

Colorado governor Jared Polis, who lives in Boulder, declared a state of emergency as thousands abandoned the communities of Superior and Louisville, jamming roads and highways. Residents in other parts of Boulder County were warned they too may need to leave.

“We saw a line of flames at least a mile long,” Carmen Porter, who evacuated her home in Boulder County near Louisville, said by telephone. “Houses in the subdivision to the south, across the road from us, burned for sure.” 

After nightfall, the high winds had subsided but skies were orange in flame and the blistering heat was detected by a weather satellite 40,000km above the planet, the National Weather Service office in Boulder said on Twitter.

Wind gusts roaring in from the Rocky Mountains reached as high as 177km/h, prompting the weather service to issue an alert on Twitter saying, “If you are in Louisville, this is a life-threatening situation. Leave Now!”

“We are literally watching it burn,” said Superior mayor Clint Folsom, quoted by the Denver Post. “This is devastating for our people.”

The governor called the fires “unprecedented” saying they “destroyed hundreds of homes, businesses and have displaced thousands,” according to an emailed statement. Blotches of flame scattered far and wide could be seen from a flight departing Denver International Airport.

The primary blaze, the Marshall fire, had burnt at least 1,600 acres (607ha), the Denver Gazette reported. About 15,000 homes and businesses across the state, mostly in Boulder County, were without power on Friday morning, according to Poweroutage.us, which tracks utility outages. That’s down from more than 47,000 late on Thursday.

Disaster services opened evacuation centres across Boulder County. A special site to shelter horses and other large animals at the county fairgrounds filled up and a second site for animals was opened in neighbouring Jefferson County.

Patients at Centura-Avista Adventist Hospital in Superior were “safely evacuated” to other facilities, hospital operator Centura said.

Away from the fires, the winds flipped large trucks in the Denver suburb of Arvada on Thursday.

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