At least one person was killed in a Colorado wildfire that has burned more than a thousand acres and destroyed five structures, officials said Wednesday.
Human remains were found in a residence burned in the Stone Canyon Fire, Boulder County Sheriff Curtis Johnson said at a news conference. No other details were released.
The blaze, which started around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday and had burned around 1,548 acres as of Wednesday afternoon, is one of several fires ravaging the west.
Emergency services are also battling raging wildfires across Southern California as communities begin to pick up the pieces after homes were destroyed.
For areas such as Cohasset, in Butte County, which has been ravaged by the enormous Park Fire, evacuation orders have been lifted, and now the slow process of recovery has begun.
"This community's going to need a lot of support, a lot of aid. It’s a rural community. It’s not a city or a town — there’s no governmental structure here," Dan Collins, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said Tuesday.
"There are people that live here with little to no means, and they just lost everything they own or everything they ever had," he said, adding that a local residents' association was asking for donations to help rebuild.
The Park Fire, the fifth largest in California’s history, has so far burned through more than 380,000 acres, or 600 square miles, across four counties and is just 18% contained, Cal Fire said late Tuesday.
The fire's threat is far from over as it continues to burn through inaccessible terrain full of dense vegetation. "That’s going to be a continued challenge for us moving forward over the next couple of days," said Mark Brunton, an operations section chief with Cal Fire.
The recently named Nixon Fire in California has burned through 4,500 acres, or 7 square miles, and was 0% contained Tuesday night.
Dramatic video from a body-worn camera shows a firefighter shooting water into the Park Fire along a roadside in California's Central Valley, with thick smoke filling the sky. The firefighter, who can be heard coughing, was part of a team that included 10 fire engines, bulldozers, a helicopter and 15 other personnel, Cal Fire's Sonoma-Lake Napa Unit said on X.
Overall 5,500 firefighters are working just to stop the Park Fire, which has fed on dry grass and timber after a prolonged heat wave.
So far this year fires have burned through 750,000 acres, or 1,100 miles, across California, authorities say, a 2,800% increase over last year.
Colorado's Stone Canyon Fire grew little overnight, the Boulder County sheriff said at Wednesday's news conference. Fire crews have been working to secure the west and south sides of the inferno because that area is closest to the town, he said.
"We are doing everything we can to protect the community," said Johnson, the sheriff.
Authorities believe the fire has destroyed five structures, possibly residences. The Boulder Office of Disaster Management said it has burned 1,548 acres with 0% containment.
Elsewhere in Colorado, more than 600 homes were evacuated after a new blaze ignited near Deer Creek Canyon, southwest of Denver. A mandatory evacuation order is effect for the Deer Creek Mesa, Sampson and Maxwell subdivisions southwest of Ken Caryl, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said.
Named the Quarry Fire, the blaze grew to more than 100 acres overnight after a sheriff's deputy spotted at 9 p.m. MT Tuesday.
A couple whose house is a quarter-mile from the fire were told to leave at 1:15 a.m. At first, they thought it was a prank.
"The doorbell rang again. There was a flashlight in the window — it was the sheriff telling us we had to evacuate. There was a fire," Doug Ideker told NBC affiliate KUSA of Denver.
His wife, Terrie, said: “I looked out the window and saw smoke, and I could smell it, so I felt a real sense of urgency. We didn’t really have time to prep anything."
The Alexander Mountain and Stone Canyon fires, both north of Boulder, are about 80 miles apart but had overlapping evacuation orders Tuesday night.
