At least 19,000 people are under an evacuation order after a fast-spreading wildfire began to burn Saturday in the Boulder, Colorado area, not far from the site of the destructive blaze that swept through more than 1,000 homes in 2021.
The fire started around 2 p.m. and burned protected wilderness near the National Center for Atmospheric Research, according to Boulder police.
Authorities have called it the
NCAR
fire and its cause is still unknown.
No injuries have been reported so
far
and it is not clear if any structures are threatened, although the fire had doubled in size in a few hours on Saturday afternoon.
Boulder's Office of Emergency Management noted on Twitter that among those ordered to leave are those who live in 8,000 homes near the fire.
Large animals are being accepted at the Boulder County Fairgrounds, officials said.
Smoke from a wildfire Saturday, March 26, 2022, in Marshall, Colo., a few miles south of Boulder, Colo. Dave Zelio/AP
The fire is estimated to have rapidly grown from
60 to 123 acres,
according to the office, and has not been contained.
[“Absolutely Devastating”: Colorado Fire Burns Hundreds of Homes, Forces Thousands to Evacuate]
Boulder Fire Rescue spokeswoman Marya Washburn said the day's warm weather and strong winds were giving way to more favorable conditions on the front.
“The wind is calming down and we hope that the weather will play more in our favor,” he
said on Saturday night.
Authorities investigating the origin of the fire said it started south of the Mesa Laboratory, where there is a basin, a canyon and trails that cross from east to west, toward the Rocky Mountains.
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"A Kind of Repeat"
Alicia Miller, whose home was burned by the 2021 fire, watched as smoke from Saturday's blaze rose above the remains of her former home, as shown in a photo posted on Twitter.
Miller blamed climate change, which has made the western United States hotter and drier over the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.
In the previous fire, her neighbors helped her escape along with her husband, Craig, their three adult children, and their two dogs, Ginger and Chloe.
[The UN warns in a new report that urgent action against climate change is necessary "to guarantee a decent future"]
“I feel exhausted from all of this, and I feel like enough is enough with these fires and disasters,” she said, pointing to a recent Texas wildfire in which a sheriff's deputy was killed and several homes were destroyed.
"So I'm there and
it's kind of a repeat,"
he added.
Brian Oliver, chief of the Boulder Wildfire Division, told a late-night news conference that the fire started this afternoon in the Bear Creek drainage and investigators with the Boulder County Sheriff's Office are still looking for possible witnesses. have been near the trails south of the Mesa Laboratory around 2:00 pm.
Several air tankers attempted to contain the flames, according to video from Denver-based NBC affiliate KUSA.
Washburn said protecting homes and buildings was the top priority for now.
"We're doing everything we can to keep the structures safe," he said.
Boulder police previously said people who signed up
for cellular emergency alerts
and were within a quarter-mile of the Mesa Laboratory received wireless alerts ordering them to leave the area when the wildfire began to move quickly.
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Saturday's fire is not far from the area burned by the most destructive wildfire in state history.
The Marshall Fire, which started Dec. 30, consumed nearly 10 square miles, destroying 991 homes and damaging 127 other structures.
The cause remains undetermined, although a Boulder ranger has written a report that includes the possibility that it had two ignition points.
With information from
NBC News
and AP.
