Colorado Wildfire Forces Evacuation Orders for 19,000 People

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — A wildfire south of Boulder that forced nearly 20,000 people to flee was listed at 21% contained and most evacuations had been lifted by Sunday morning, officials with Boulder Fire-Rescue said.

The fire, which ignited Saturday, burned to within 1,000 yards (914 meters) of homes on the west end of Boulder, said Mike Smith, incident commander.

A quick initial attack “combined with all of the fuels mitigation treatments that we’ve done in this area is one of the reasons that we’ve had such great success,” Smith said Sunday.

Fire crews were also able to use aircraft to fight the fire, laying down lines of fire retardant near homes in the rolling hills south of the college town, he said.

The evacuation area was reduced late Saturday to cover about 1,700 people and 700 residences, down from about 8,000 homes earlier in the day. Fire managers will allow more people back into their homes Sunday as it becomes safe, officials said.

Work on Sunday was focused on reinforcing the fire line and making sure the fire doesn’t burn toward the city of Boulder or down toward Eldorado Canyon, Smith said. Crews were working to corral the fire into an area of rocks and snow.

The wildfire was fueled by wind earlier in the day and had grown to 122 acres (49 hectares) with no containment, Boulder Fire-Rescue spokesperson Marya Washburn said. The Boulder Office of Emergency Management said an overnight shelter was opened after initial evacuation orders covered 8,000 homes and 7,000 structures. No structures had been damaged.

The fire is in an area where a blaze destroyed 1,000 homes last year in unincorporated Boulder County and suburban Superior and Louisville. Superior town officials told residents in an email that there were no immediate concerns for the community.

The 2021 blaze burned Alicia Miller’s home, where she could see smoke from Saturday’s fire rising in the background. She posted a photo on Twitter and referenced climate change, which has made the U.S. West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.

Miller said her neighbors helped her escape along with her husband, Craig, their three adult sons and two dogs, Ginger and Chloe. She said the hardest losses from the blaze were things they didn’t look at much, like baby shoes, family pictures and letters from her grandmother.

“I feel exhausted by all of this, and I just feel like enough as far as these fires and disasters,” she said. She pointed to a recent Texas wildfire that left a deputy dead and homes destroyed. ” … So I’m standing there and it’s just kind of a repeat.”

Saturday’s fire started around 2 p.m. and burned protected wildland near the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder police said. Authorities have called it the NCAR fire and its cause is not yet known, said Washburn.

About the photo: From left to right, Laura Tyson, Tod Smith and Rebecca Caldwell, residents of Eldorado Springs, watch as the NCAR fire burns in the foothills south of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Saturday, March 26, 2022, in Boulder, Colo. The NCAR fire prompted evacuations in south Boulder and pre-evacuation warning for Eldorado Springs. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP)