Wildfires in US West derail holiday plans
denver — A growing wildfire destroyed more than 100 homes in the Colorado mountains, while other blazes across the parched US West kept hundreds of other homes under evacuation orders and derailed holiday plans.
Authorities announced late Monday that a fire near Fort Garland, about 205 miles southwest of Denver, had destroyed 104 homes in a mountain housing development started by multimillionaire publisher Malcolm Forbes in the 1970s. The damage toll could rise because the burn area is still being surveyed.
Tamara Estes’ family cabin, which her parents had built in 1963 using wood and rocks from the land, was among the homes destroyed.
“I think it’s sinking in more now. But we’re just crying,” she said. “My grandmother’s antique dining table and her hutch are gone.”
“It was a sacred place to us,” she added. Andy and Robyn Kuehler watched flames approach their cabin via surveillance video from their primary residence in Nebraska.
“We just got confirmation last night that the house was completely gone. It’s ... a very sickening feeling watching the fire coming towards the house,” the couple wrote in an email Tuesday.
The blaze, labelled the Spring Fire, is one of six large wildfires burning in Colorado and is the largest at 123 square miles — about five times the size of Manhattan. —