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Hundreds of families try to save what remains of their homes after the devastation of the Colorado fire

2022-01-01T15:41:43.496Z


Some communities were reduced to "smoking holes" by the flames, authorities said. Injuries have been reported, but no deaths.


Hundreds of families return to their homes and try to save what remains of them at the beginning of the year in Colorado after the fire that destroyed more than a thousand homes in the Denver suburbs.

At least seven people were injured, but there have been no reports of deaths or missing persons in the fire that broke out Thursday in and around Louisville and Superior, neighboring cities about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Denver.

Families forced to flee the flames without warning began to return to their neighborhoods.

The outlook is one of devastation: in some blocks, the houses were reduced to smoking ruins.

They are left with the difficult task of rebuilding amid a supply shortage.

In the way the economy is now, how long will it take to rebuild all these houses?

Brian O'Neill, the owner of a Louisville home that burned to the ground, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

A woman cries as she sees the burned remains of a house destroyed by the Marshall Wildfire in Louisville, Colorado, Friday, Dec. 31, 2021.Jack Dempsey / AP

Roads were still closed on Friday, but families returned to their homes in search of clothing or medicine or to check the condition of structures.

Some neighbors were able to retrieve their belongings. 

Rick Dixon feared there was nothing to return to after he saw firefighters trying to save his burning house on the news.

Dixon, his wife and their son returned Friday to find the house with a huge hole in the roof, but still standing.

"We thought we had lost everything," Dixon said, as she held her mother-in-law's dishes in padded containers.

They also recovered sculptures that belonged to Dixon's father and piles of clothing.

The fire broke out unusually late in the year, following an extremely dry fall and in the middle of a nearly snowless winter thus far.

Scientists warn that climate change is making the climate more extreme and that forest fires are more frequent and destructive.

Fires in Colorado are classified as "life threatening" and consume more than 600 homes

Dec. 31, 202101: 43

The specific cause of the fire in Colorado is under investigation

.

State authorities said at first that the fire could have originated from power lines, but later public service officials found no downed power lines around the place where the fire broke out.

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Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said likely more than 500 homes were destroyed.

He and Gov. Jared Polis said as many as 1,000 homes could have been lost, though that won't be known until crews can assess the damage.

A destroyed home is destroyed by flames in Louisville, Colorado, Friday, Dec. 31, 2021.Jack Dempsey / AP

The sheriff said some communities were reduced to just “

smoking holes in the ground,

” and urged residents to wait until everything cleared to return due to the danger of fire and downed power lines.

The fire, which burned at least 24 square kilometers (9.4 square miles), began to subside in the early hours of Friday.

Soon light snow began to fall and the flames were no longer considered an immediate threat.

[Climate emergency reduces monarch butterfly population]

"

We could have our own New Year's miracle

in our hands if it is maintained that there was no loss of life," the governor said at the time. 

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2022-01-01

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