Like watching a movie

Strong winds of about 45 meters per second pushed the so-called Marshall Fire, which quickly spread and reached the two communities on the outskirts of the Denver metropolitan area in Colorado, USA. 32,000 people were evacuated, and police declared a state of emergency, the Denver Post reported.

“It was a horrible day in Boulder County where two major fires were caused by drought and strong winds,” he said. shovel atmosphere, the mayor of Boulder County at a press conference at 5 p.m. local time.

The Marshall Fire, the more serious of the two, was then estimated to be about 650 hectares.

We know that commercial and residential buildings have been burned and lost. Ayano: We’re talking about hundreds of buildings.

The hospital has been evacuated

Among the destroyed buildings are an estimated 580 homes, hotels and a shopping mall. Among the buildings that were evacuated was a hospital.

To date, there are no reports of deaths.

“But I want to stress that given the size and intensity of the fire and its presence in densely populated areas, we would not be surprised if there were any dead or injured,” says Bailey.

The cause of the fire is not clear, but it has been reported that power lines were smashed by high winds, which also caused trucks to capsize on highways in the area.

The Marshall Fire was alerted at 11:00 local time and spread at a devastating speed to the east. Two hours later, evacuation orders were issued for the upper community, and less than an hour later for neighboring Louisville.

dry grass

Becky BollingerA climate scientist at Colorado State University, wrote on Twitter that it was a combination of several conditions that created the conditions for the fires. A wet spring led to the grass growing and cracking, followed by a dry summer and a drier autumn, and then came the strong day winds that led to the fast track.

He saw the flames from the windows

Liz Burnham He lives between the two communities, on the Louisville side.

There is a six-lane highway between us, so I didn’t think the fire would come to us. But she somehow managed to get past or under the highway. I wasn’t expecting it, I told TT.

She discovered that she started to smell like smoke when she was sitting in her second floor apartment.

– It was strange, because it was in the middle of winter. I looked outside and saw smoke and it approaching.

She went upstairs to talk to her neighbor, a retired firefighter, who told him about the wildfires coming from the west. Burnham began packing the bag and preparing to flee.

– I sat and waited with my dog ​​for a while to see if there was an evacuation order, because the smoke got worse. I went and looked and saw the flames, she says.

wedding dress left

Liz Burnham realized she needed to leave the house.

– When I got into the car, it exploded so hard with ash in the wind, you could hardly see where you were going. I happened to drop my dog ​​off at one point, and found her under the car. I have never felt terrified in my entire life. I didn’t know where to go or how to get there, but I knew where the flames came from, so I knew where to go.

Her fiancé found a hotel room outside of Denver, where they and the dog are now.

– We don’t know anything. It’s almost the scariest, we don’t know if our apartment survives or if it’s one of the 300 buildings that have burned down. It may have been completely destroyed. It’s the most stressful, we’re standing here trying to find the information, but nobody knows, because the situation is developing so fast, Burnham says.

She says the thought of losing her home is heartbreaking.

– Sad thing. I’m planning to get married this summer, and my wedding dress is still on. At the same time, this is not the end of the world, because I live and have my family, she says.