Virus strains aren’t enough?
“Anything to help,” said Hager, of Boulder City. “This community has been through a lot this year.”
No deaths were reported from the Marshall Fire and the smaller Middle Fork Fire, nor was anyone reported missing — a fact that Gov. Jared Polis (D) called “nothing short of miraculous.” But officials warned that the extent of the damage remained unknown, as did the provenance of the blazes.
“If people chose not to evacuate, didn’t hear the knocking from the deputies, I’m afraid that we are going to learn of some fatalities in these homes, because people literally had minutes to get out,” said Clint Folsom, mayor of the hard-hit town of Superior.
Some residents returned to their houses Friday after officials lifted evacuation orders. But Superior and Louisville in Boulder County, with a combined 34,000 people, remained inaccessible as the Colorado State Patrol warned that flames were still present there…
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Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle’s estimate that more than 500 homes burned means the blaze is likely to have destroyed the most property of any fire in Colorado history. Pelle said the total may surpass 1,000 homes and several commercial buildings. The county is raising money for displaced people at coloradogives.org.
More than 16,000 customers were without power as of mid-Friday, according to utility company Xcel Energy. Police set up checkpoints to keep people at least 1½ miles from Superior’s destroyed areas, and military Humvees blocked roads.
“In many of those neighborhoods that are currently blocked off, it’s still too dangerous to return,” Pelle told reporters Friday. “We saw still-active fire in many places this morning. We saw downed power lines, we saw a lot of risk that we’re still trying to mitigate.”…