No deaths have been reported in the ferocious Colorado wildfire. It may be a 'New Year's miracle,' governor says
CTV
No deaths have been reported as a result of a swift and vicious wildfire that consumed at least 500 homes in Boulder County, Colorado, and forced some 35,000 people to flee, authorities said Friday.
"We might have our very own New Year's miracle on our hands if it holds up that there was no loss of life," Gov. Jared Polis said. One person who was unaccounted for has been found and several others treated for injuries, authorities said.
The outcome appears all the more astonishing considering how quickly the Marshall Fire spread, carried by historically powerful winds across drought-parched land.
"In the blink of an eye," the governor said Friday at a news conference, "many families having minutes, minutes to get whatever they could, their pets, their kids into the car and leave."
Still, hundreds have lost homes and perhaps everything they own. Entire subdivisions burned, Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said. "The west side of Superior, Old Town Superior ... are totally gone. That accounts easily for 500 homes," he said after he and the governor flew over the area to assess the damage.
