The fire occurred after tornadoes in mid-December in Kentucky. (File)
Superiority:
Three people missing after a wildfire tore through several Colorado towns, quickly destroying nearly 1,000 homes is the latest part in a string of natural disasters in the US.
“We’re very fortunate that we don’t have a list of 100 people missing. But unfortunately we have three people who have been confirmed missing,” Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said at a news conference.
At least 991 homes are believed to have been destroyed as flames raged through the towns of Superior and Louisville on Thursday, just outside the state’s largest city, Denver, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee without warning. before.
Shocking aerial footage shows the entire street being left with a smoky pile of ash, almost total devastation but somehow, a few houses eerily still intact.
Pelle said the search for the missing person has been hampered by devastation and snow.
“The structures where these people are will be completely destroyed and covered with about 8 inches (20 cm) of snow right now.”
Investigators found no credible evidence to substantiate previous reports that the downed power line may have caused the fire, and Pelle said some residents may have been confused by the line. telecommunications is broken.
However, investigators did “execute a search warrant at a specific location” as part of an ongoing investigation that Pelle described as “very active” and included federal and state partners. state.
The fire, which was lit in an arid landscape, was then fanned by gusts of more than 100 miles (160 km) an hour on Thursday.
Governor Jared Polis said: “This is a disaster in the fast-moving … within half a day. Many families have a few minutes to get whatever they can – their pets, their children – up. car and leave” in the blink of an eye. “
At least 33,000 people in Superior and Louisville have been told to flee, many doing so with little clothes on their backs.
Pelle said he spoke to the niece of one of the missing on Saturday morning.
“They’re trying to find her. And we’re trying to find her for her,” he said. “But the conditions right now don’t make that possible quickly.”
Although snowfall helped put out the fire, it was a “difficult thing for crime scenes, and recovery efforts and damage assessment,” Pelle said.
The fire broke out just before the New Year holiday, after a mid-December tornado in Kentucky left dozens dead and thousands of families in crisis before Christmas.
Although fires are a natural part of the climate cycle and help wipe out dirt, their size and intensity are increasing.
Climate warming, mainly caused by human activities such as uncontrolled burning of fossil fuels, is changing weather patterns, scientists say.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
