Wildfires destroy hundreds of houses in US

Published January 1, 2022
HOUSES burn as wildfires rip through a neighbourhood in Superior, Colorado.—AP
HOUSES burn as wildfires rip through a neighbourhood in Superior, Colorado.—AP

SUPERIOR: Fast-moving wildfires in the US state of Colorado destroyed hundreds of homes and forced at least 33,000 people to flee, officials said, as flames tore through areas desiccated by a historic drought.

At least 1,600 acres (650 hectares) have burned in Boulder County, much of it suburban, with officials warning that deaths and injuries were likely as the blaze took hold of a hotel, shopping centre and apartment complex in the town of Superior.

“We know that approximately 370 homes in the Sagamore subdivision... have been lost. There’s a potential of 210 homes lost in Old Town Superior,” Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle told a news conference on Thursday.

“Due to the magnitude and intensity of this fire, and its presence in such a heavily populated area, we would not be surprised if there are injuries or fatalities.”

Colorado media outlets reported that at least six persons were hospitalised with injuries.

About 33,000 people in the towns of Louisville and Superior were told to flee, with the National Weather Service (NWS) describing the situation as “life-threatening”.

Patrick Kilbride, 72, was at work in a hardware store when he heard the order to evacuate, The Denver Post reported. He raced home to gather his possessions, 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 lived in for three decades.

“It’s just a strange feeling to go from having everything to make your life comfortable to having nothing,” he said.

The fast-moving fires are thought to have begun when power lines were toppled by gusting winds. Winds of over 160 kilometres per hour were reported in some places, fanning flames and preventing aircraft from taking off.

Patti Holtz described the terror of evacuating her Boulder County home.

“The ditches and things and the trees, they’re all up in flames,” she said. “There’s embers everywhere. So it makes me very frightened of course, with the wind, that it’s going to continue to spread to other homes.

“It was so dark, of course, that you just can’t see anything. It’s like the black of night.”

Changing weather conditions may provide some relief, however. NWS cancelled high wind warnings in affected areas late on Thursday and forecast heavy snow across Colorado over the next two days.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2022

Opinion

Editorial

No negotiations
10 Jul, 2025

No negotiations

IT seems like the appeal from Kot Lakhpat Jail has fallen on deaf ears. “[…] The time for negotiations has...
Speech policing
Updated 10 Jul, 2025

Speech policing

Sweeping accusations have once more exposed just how broadly and arbitrarily Peca is being applied.
Continued detention
10 Jul, 2025

Continued detention

THE continued detention of BYC head Mahrang Baloch and five other activists indicates that the state is uninterested...
Killing fields
Updated 09 Jul, 2025

Killing fields

Israeli state seeks to ethnically cleanse the occupied territories of their Palestinian inhabitants, and forever obstruct the chances of a viable Palestinian state.
Crypto rush
09 Jul, 2025

Crypto rush

STEP by step, Pakistan is, at least on paper, moving closer to recognising, adopting and regulating cryptocurrencies...
Another plan
09 Jul, 2025

Another plan

FAILING to plan is planning to fail, as the old saying goes. This seems to have occurred in the case of Karachi, a...