Colorado wildfires burn hundreds of homes and force thousands to flee

One first responder and six others were injured in the Colorado wildfires that began Thursday morning, unusually late in the year and following an extremely dry fall and a winter.

Mike Guanella and his family were relaxing at their Colorado home and looking forward to celebrating a belated family Christmas later Thursday when reports of a nearby grass fire quickly turned into a concerning pre-evacuation notice and then within minutes into an order to leave immediately.

The Guanellas were among tens of thousands of residents who were forced to evacuate their homes outside Denver as wildfires fueled by winds that gusted up to 169 km/h engulfed parts of two cities and burned an estimated 580 homes, a hotel and a shopping centre.

Instead of opening Christmas presents at home in the city of Superior as they had planned, Guanella and his wife, their three children and three dogs were staying a friend’s house in Denver and hoping their house was still standing.

“Those presents are still under the tree right now … we hope,” Guanella said.

At least one first responder and six others were injured in the fires that began Thursday morning, unusually late in the year and following an extremely dry fall and a winter so far nearly devoid of snow. Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle acknowledged that more injuries and also deaths could be possible due to the intensity of fires that quickly swept across the region.

“This is the kind of fire we can’t fight head on,” Pelle said. “We actually had deputy sheriffs and firefighters in areas that had to pull out because they just got overrun,” he added.

As night fell, officials were watching how the winds behaved and the fires reacted to determine when crews are able to go in and begin assessing the damage and searching for any victims.

Evacuations were ordered earlier in the day for the cities of Louisville and Superior, located about 32 kilometres northwest of Denver and home to a combined 34,000 people. A nearby portion of U.S. Highway 36 also was shut down.