USA: Colorado – Ice extinguishes fire that has ravaged the international community

The fire, which destroyed all the neighborhoods in the western U.S. state of Colorado “in the blink of an eye”, is being extinguished this Friday (31) with the last fire extinguishing snow.

At least 500 homes were smoked and tens of thousands of people had to be evacuated, but so far, the reported deaths have been “a miracle,” says Governor Jared Police.

The Greatest Destruction: In the aerial pictures you can see the whole streets reduced to ashes and smoke. Like other fires these were not limited to the countryside but reached the suburbs.

“Animals, children – families had only a few minutes to collect what they could in a car and flee,” police told a news conference Friday. The governor said it all happened “in the blink of an eye”.

Last night, the wind blew to 160, igniting the sky in orange, and the fire apparently caused the poles to fall on the dry ground.

The number of dilapidated houses is not yet known. Boulder County Sheriff Joe Belle estimates the number is over 500 today, and he said it would “not be surprising if there are more than 1,000.”

The fire spread to “a mosaic” so some neighborhoods were saved and houses on the other side were burned, he explained.

“When you look at the disaster, it’s surprising we do not have a list of the 100 missing, but we do not,” the sheriff declared.

In a phone call to police, the governor promised that President Joe Biden would “do everything in his power to provide immediate assistance to the victims and the local population,” according to the White House.

– Blizzard-

This Friday was covered in gray snow.

The United States Meteorological Agency (NWS) has issued a winter storm warning for parts of the mountains and forecast heavy snowfall in the coming days.

Belle said the snow would “help us” and now doubts whether the fire will spread again.

Some eviction orders were suspended overnight by local authorities, but access to places such as Superior, home to 13,000 people, has been blocked.

While Patrick Gilbright, 72, was working, he was ordered fired. He was only able to save his car and the clothes he was wearing. The rest, that is, the house where he lived for three decades, were reduced to “ashes,” he told the Denver Post.

– Frenzied dry –

Like the western United States, Colorado has been plagued by drought for many years.

With global warming, the intensity and frequency of episodes of drought and heat waves further increase, creating favorable conditions for wildfires.

In recent years, the western United States, especially California and Oregon, have been hit by unprecedented fires.

For Daniel Swain, a meteorologist at UCLA University, it is “hard to believe” that fires will occur in December.

“However, take autumn [no hemisfrio norte] Two centimeters of snow so far added to the storm with high heat and drought, and intense winds. […] The result would be a very dangerous fire that moves very fast, ”the researcher tweeted.

In addition to the fire, the United States has recently experienced other extreme events, such as Hurricane Ida passing through New York and New Jersey in September and December’s deadly hurricane in Kentucky. So far, it is not known whether the latter is linked to global warming.