(Bloomberg) — The wind-driven infernos near Boulder, Colorado destroyed as many as 1,000 homes and scorched about 6,000 acres, authorities said.
Structures were devoured “in just a blink of an eye,” Colorado Governor Jared Polis, who made an aerial survey of the disaster, said at a Friday news conference. Authorities suspect the fires were started by downed power lines in the hurricane-force winds. No deaths have been reported.
The flames whipped by winds topping 100 miles (161 kilometers) an hour Thursday “devastated some blocks and left others standing,” Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said, adding that up to 1,000 homes may have burned though no one has been reported missing.
“It’s unbelievable we don’t have a list of 100 missing persons — but we don’t,” Pelle said. “It’s a miracle.”
Firefighters from as far as Denver, about 30 miles to the south of Boulder, answered the alarm in the latest devastating blazes to hit the drought-stricken U.S. West.
The wildfires are the most recent bout of extreme weather as climate change and a La Nina weather pattern leaves much of the U.S. West hotter and drier. Most of the region, including all of Colorado, are gripped by drought. More than 2.5 million acres have burned this year in California alone. The area around Boulder, a college town northwest of Denver, hasn’t had significant rain or snow for months.
Polis, who lives in Boulder, declared a state of emergency Thursday as thousands abandoned the communities of Superior and Louisville, jamming roads and highways.
Some building sites in Superior were reduced to “smoking holes in the ground,” the sheriff said.
Colorado’s wildfire season typically ends in autumn, but the region is so dry and devoid of snow that it remains primed for blazes. They come just weeks after unseasonably warm weather helped spur deadly tornadoes in Kentucky and a rare and violent wave of thunder and wind storms known as a derecho in Nebraska and Kansas.
The area that burned is at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, a region called the Front Range. Much of the terrain is prairie, and many of the homes destroyed were recently built, with wood frames.
A spokeswoman for the utility that serves the region, Xcel Energy Inc., said the company hasn’t been able to access its equipment yet and had no immediate comment on the cause of the blazes.
“We’re working with authorities,” the spokeswoman, Michelle Aguayo, said in a brief interview.
Xcel shares fell as much as 1.7% in New York.
About 17,000 homes and businesses across the state, mostly in Boulder County, were without power as of 11:17 a.m. Friday, according to Poweroutage.us, which tracks utility outages. That’s down from more than 47,000 late Thursday.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
