Colorado's most destructive wildfire caused by embers from old fire, sparks from power line
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Colorado’s most destructive wildfire caused by embers from old fire, sparks from power line
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Embers from a smoldering scrap wood fire set days earlier outside a home used by a Christian religious communal group along with a sparking power line caused a 2021 Colorado wildfire fanned by high winds that destroyed nearly 1,100 homes and left two people dead, authorities said Thursday.
Authorities spent 18 months investigating and determined criminal charges were not warranted for either The Twelve Tribes that occupied the home or the utility in charge of the power line, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said at a news conference.
“If we were to tell you today we are filing charges, it would be wrong and unethical,” Dougherty said.
The Dec. 30, 2021, blaze in heavily populated suburbs between Denver and Boulder caused $2 billion in damage, making it the most destructive in Colorado history. Two people were also found dead after what was known as the Marshall Fire.
The inferno erupted following months of drought amid a winter nearly devoid of snow and fed on bone-dry grassland surrounding fast-growing development in the area near the Rocky Mountain foothills. It spread rapidly in winds that gusted up to 100 mph (160 kph) in places.
For one woman who lost her home and watched the news conference, seeing photos and hearing about the fire all over again was almost as difficult as the fire’s immediate aftermath.
“On top of trying figure out how it started, all this just stirs up all the same emotions. It makes you nauseous in re-remembering everything,” Barba Hickman said.
Experts say similar events will become more common as climate change warms the planet and suburbs grow in fire-prone areas.
The scrap wood fire — buried by residents Dec. 24 in a manner approved by firefighters who stopped by that day to investigate — was one cause when the powerful winds uncovered the buried embers six days later, Sheriff Curtis Johnson said at the news conference.
“Once they realized there was a fire and it was spreading, they attempted to put it out, but the winds were quickly spreading the flames faster than they could put it out,” said Johnson, who lost his home in the blaze and teared up during the news conference.
A loose Xcel Energy power line caused a separate fire less than half a mile (1 kilometer) away around the same time, Johnson said.
Thousands of residents were at home the day before New Year’s Eve and used the suburban area’s extensive road network to escape amid smoke, flames and blowing embers, which spread the fire in the wind. Shifting winds caused the skies to turn from clear to smoky and then back again in an area filled with middle- and upper-middle class subdivisions surrounded by shopping centers, parks and schools.
As smoke filled the parking lot of a Costco warehouse store and debris whirled around, a sheriff’s deputy ordered people inside to leave their carts, evacuate the sprawling building and head toward Denver, away from the fire. Within hours, it destroyed 1,084 homes and seven commercial buildings, and damaged nearly 200 structures.
Old coal mines that smoldered underground in the area could not be ruled out as playing a role in the fire, but were not deemed to be part of the cause, investigators said.
