Hundreds of homes were destroyed by flames in the state of Colorado on Thursday, authorities said, as the fire was fueled by strong winds following a historic drought in the area.
Thousands of residents were ordered to leave their homes immediately yesterday. The order concerned in particular Louisville, a city of 20,000 inhabitants. “If you are in the area, leave immediately,” Boulder County emergency services warned residents.
So far there is information only for six injured.
“We know that about 370 homes in the Sagamor area have been destroyed. “It is possible that 210 houses were destroyed in the old town of Superior,” Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelly told a news conference.
The city of Boulder, with a population of over 100,000, is located about 50 miles from Denver, the capital of Colorado.
Colorado, in the American West, is experiencing a historical drought, which has greatly facilitated the spread of fire. At least 6,480 acres of vegetation were reduced to ashes in Boulder County. The flames engulfed hotels and shopping malls.
Gusts of wind with a speed of more than 160 kilometers per hour in places give momentum to the flames and unimaginably complicate the work of firefighters.
“I would like to stress that given the scale and intensity of this fire, as well as the fact that it is located in a very densely populated area, we would not be surprised if we had injuries or deaths,” warned Sheriff Pelli.
“Strong winds are spreading the flames fast and all the planes are stuck on the ground,” Jared Polis, the governor of this mountainous US state where the Rocky Mountains meet the Great Plains, said via Twitter. He declared a state of emergency.
“Leave Louisville because otherwise your life will be in danger,” the US Meteorological Agency insisted, referring to winds of gusts of up to 170 kilometers per hour.
DEVELOPING: 500+ homes destroyed & thousands of residents displaced as #MarshallFire engulfs Boulder County, Colorado – https://t.co/ajKmg3yADq
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 31, 2021
“All that was left was ashes”
Another evacuation order, the Superior of 13,000 residents, was covered yesterday by a cloud of black smoke, as captured in photo snapshots posted on social networking sites.
Patrick Kilbright, 72, was at work on a railing when he was ordered to leave immediately, according to the Denver Post.
He hurried to his house in Superior to collect some things, but could not save anything other than his car and some clothes. His cat and dog were lost, they died because of the fire. “All that was left was ashes,” he said, referring to the house where he had lived for three decades.
“It’s a strange feeling to go from one situation where you have all the possible comforts to another where you have absolutely nothing,” he admitted to the Denver Post.
Colorado and much of the western United States are affected by a drought that lasts for years, making the area very vulnerable to fires.
Although the latter are considered a natural component of the climate cycle, as they allow the vegetation to clear and reduce the spread of plant diseases, their extent is increasing alarmingly.
With global warming, the intensity and frequency of droughts, which threaten the food security of populations, are in danger of escalating, even if the goal of reducing temperatures to 1.5 ° C relative to pre-industrial is achieved. time.
Moreover, rising temperatures, as well as the fact that heat waves and droughts are multiplying, create ideal conditions for fires in forests and areas with vegetation.
In recent years, the American West has experienced unprecedented fires, especially the states of California and Oregon.
For Daniel Swain, a meteorologist at UCLA, it is “hard to believe” that fires broke out in December, a period that is not normally recorded in the area.
“But if you take the record summer heat and drought, the fact that we only have two centimeters of snow so far this season, and add a thunderstorm with terribly high speed winds, gusts of 160 kilometers per hour and above (…) the result “These are extremely dangerous fires that move very fast,” said the researcher.
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