Editor’s note: We are no longer updating this story. For the latest updates on the Marshall fire in Boulder County, click here.
On the last day of 2021 — a year that dealt Boulder County a tragic mass shooting in the midst of ongoing pandemic woes — thousands of residents who’d evacuated Superior and Louisville waited ahead of a looming snowstorm to learn whether a wildfire had engulfed their homes.
Pushed due east by 100-mph winds, the Marshall fire sparked late Thursday morning south of Boulder, burning across 6,000 acres that afternoon and evening, destroying as many as 1,000 homes and businesses in Superior and Louisville.
The winter wildfire, which exploded amid bone-dry conditions fueled by climate warming, quickly became the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history.
In the daylight after a night of fire wreckage, gray snow clouds mixed with smoke and overwhelming fumes hung over the suburban Boulder County neighborhoods. The random path of destruction was stark as subdivisions like Coal Creek Ranch resembled scenes from disaster movies, with the smoldering debris of one house sitting next to a perfectly intact home.
Along McCaslin Boulevard in Louisville, a Subway sandwich shop and an At the Beach tanning salon were among the retail outlets scorched when the wind-driven flames reached one of the city’s strip malls. An entire hotel in Superior was swallowed by the flames.
“It’s absolutely crazy and heart-wrenching and hard to believe anything like this could ever happen,” said Andrew Muckle, a physician who has lived in Superior for 25 years and previously served as mayor.
His home survived, but so many didn’t.
During a Friday morning news conference, Gov. Jared Polis and Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle estimated up to 1,000 homes in Superior and Louisville may have been destroyed as the roaring wildfire decimated entire subdivisions with shocking speed.
Colorado’s most destructive fire, in terms of property damage, previously had been 2013’s Black Forest fire near Colorado Springs, which had torched 489 homes.
But, in a development officials pointed to as miraculous, there have been no reported deaths connected to the wildfire and no missing persons reported as of Friday afternoon.
“We might have our very own New Year’s miracle on our hands if it holds up that there’s no loss of life,” Polis said.
But KUSA-TV reported late Friday that the sheriff’s office said two people had since been reported missing. One of them is 91-year-old Nadine Turnbull, whose home burned down in Original Town Superior, the TV station reported.
No information was available at press time about the other missing person.
Officials on Thursday evening estimated at least 500 homes in Superior were burned by the wildfire, but both Polis and Pelle acknowledged in Friday’s briefing that that number likely will rise significantly, with numerous losses also reported in Louisville.
“I would estimate it’s going to be at least 500,” Pelle said. “I would not be surprised if it’s 1,000.”
Officials said there were 1,778 homes within the burn area with a total value of $825 million — but not all of them were destroyed or even damaged, and it may be another day or so before a final tally is complete.
Though not officially contained, officials said they did not expect the fire to grow larger or cause more significant damage than it already has, but some burned homes and buildings continued to smolder with smoke and lapping flames Friday, even as snow began to fall.
“There’s still areas burning inside the fire zone, around homes and shrubbery, but we’re not expecting to see any growth of the fire,” Pelle said. “I think we’re pretty well contained.”
As the fire was still burning, Pelle and other authorities advised residents and people wanting to volunteer to not return to their homes. The Colorado National Guard and police officials blocked entrances to multiple roads and neighborhood entrances, signaling for worried drivers wondering whether their homes were still standing to turn around.
The snow’s arrival to the Front Range on Friday was expected to help authorities’ efforts to snuff the remaining fire.
However, climate scientists were unsure how much relief the snow ultimately will provide, given the increasing drought and warm temperatures the Denver metro area has faced this fall. The conditions, which have become more common due to climate change, provided all of the ingredients needed to spark a wildfire, they said.
“That’s made for a quite extreme climate,” said Becky Bolinger, assistant state climatologist at the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University. “We don’t experience that often.”
Cause still under investigation
Officials had said Thursday that they believed the Marshall fire likely was sparked by power lines downed by the high winds. However, the Boulder Office of Emergency Management said Friday that Xcel Energy inspected all of its power lines in the ignition area and found none that were down, according to a news update.
The utility did locate some “compromised” communication lines that people may have misidentified as power lines, Boulder emergency officials said. Telephone, cable and internet lines generally don’t start fires, officials said.
The investigation into the fire’s cause continues, emergency officials said.
Overnight, local authorities lifted all evacuation orders and pre-evacuation warnings for residents outside of Boulder County, including those in Broomfield, Westminster and Arvada. Friday afternoon, they lifted evacuation orders for part of Superior, including south of Coalton Road between Highway 128 and Rock Creek Parkway, and the Bell Flatirons Apartments.
Polis flew over the site of the Marshall fire on Friday morning. Video from the flight showed smoke rising from the rubble that used to be homes. Whole streets of homes were largely wiped out, with only a few houses still standing.
“This was a rapid fire over a period of hours with gusts up to 105 mph leap-frogging instantly over highways, over roads, across neighborhoods,” Polis said.
Pelle said the fire destruction was like a mosaic where entire blocks were leveled but then the flames left everything standing around it.
The governor spoke with President Joe Biden on Friday morning, saying he gave verbal authorization for a major disaster declaration, which will mean homeowners and small business owners won’t have to wait for preliminary damage assessment for assistance, Polis said.
A St. Francis statue watches over destroyed townhomes on Owl Drive in Louisville. pic.twitter.com/gIRCh7pLzN
— The First Noelle Phillips (@Noelle_Phillips) December 31, 2021
“Total devastation”
Kent Crawford, 75, was working from his townhome in the Ridge at Superior development Thursday afternoon, his fireplace roaring with the cable news on in the background.
His son, who lives in California and had seen news of the fires on Twitter, called Crawford and said: “Dad, you have to get out right now. There are fires.”
Crawford looked out his window — one of the highest points in Superior, he said — and said emergency vehicles had just pulled up to evacuate his complex.
He fled, taking nothing with him but the sweatpants he wore and the jacket on his back. He drove around the city, trying to find a safe place to hunker down and ride it out, but instead watched flames engulf building after building, home after home.
“It was like a bombed-out war zone,” Crawford said. “The sun was obscured by the smoke. The smell. It was surreal.”
Crawford stayed up all night and was walking around Harper Lake on Friday to pass the time. Police were still blocking the route to his home, but he had seen his complex still standing on the morning news.
“When I found out my place was OK, I got upset,” Crawford said. “Why me? I was guilty.”
Crawford said he knows at least a dozen friends whose homes are gone.
Crawford survived three huge Orange County fires in his time living in California and never thought he would be dodging burning embers in his Colorado suburbia.
“It’s tragic,” Crawford said. “Total devastation.”
Video from our reporter @ehernandez of destroyed homes on Owl Drive in Louisville from the #MarshallFire. Snow is now falling in the burn area. https://t.co/bdoRGoEM05 pic.twitter.com/F7TEfQBZ61
— The Denver Post (@denverpost) December 31, 2021
Taking shelter, waiting for news
The YMCA of Northern Colorado in Lafayette, a Red Cross evacuation center, was packed Friday morning, as evacuees took shelter, mainly waiting to find out if their homes were still standing.
Volunteers brought in and served food, toiletries, blankets and other supplies. Chaplains talked with people, mental health counselors connected with visitors and nurses provided assistance to anyone who needed it.
Veronica Llabres, 72, worried about what if anything remained of her home of 11 years in her senior living apartment in Louisville. The emotions overpowered her as she prayed with the chaplains at the shelter.
When the evacuation order was issued, Llabres packed an extra shirt, pajamas and some nuts to snack on. She wasn’t able to grab her plants or any sentimental items in her small bag.
Because she doesn’t have a car, she wasn’t sure how she would even leave, often relying on public transportation. Ultimately, she said the housing authority sent a bus to take her and other neighbors to the Lafayette shelter.
She was trying to remain positive Friday morning, and said, “when it started snowing, I felt so relieved.”
Some in the shelter like Austin Todd stayed there with their pets, waiting for word about their homes.
Todd was sitting in the gym on a cot, his two 9-year-old dogs Roxy and Wilco at his side, watching aerial footage of some of the burn area.
He was hearing from others that his townhouse of about 15 years in the Summit at Rock Creek in Superior was likely still standing, so the biggest concern for his own home was whether he still had heat and water and whether his pipes had frozen. But he also worried about the neighborhoods close by.
Todd has been concerned about the effects of climate change and what Superior would do in the case of a wildfire, particularly as his property is adjacent to open space. He said he was planning to go to the town council meeting to bring it up next week before the Marshall fire had even broken out.
“I’m in a pretty safe place. The increase in tornadoes, kind of too close to feel that. Obviously no hurricanes. I’m up on the side of a mesa that goes up, no flooding. .. The only thing I could think of is the wildfires and (that’s) exactly what happened,” he said.
Austin Todd and his dogs Roxy and Wilco came to the Lafayette shelter from their Superior home last night. Todd is hopeful his home of 15 years is still standing. #MarshallFire pic.twitter.com/nrtRcQoVtK
— Saja Hindi (@BySajaHindi) December 31, 2021
“A challenge that is unparalleled”
Former Louisville Mayor Chuck Sisk, informally known as “Mr. Louisville” for his long service on the City Council and his larger-than-life presence in this city east of Boulder, was one of the lucky ones.
His house in the Mesa Point neighborhood survived the Marshall fire, but his son’s home in Original Town Superior didn’t.
“I talked to my son and he said to me, ‘I’m homeless, dad, I’m homeless,’” Sisk said Friday. “How would you envision something like this happening? This is a catastrophe for so many families.”
Sisk, 76, returned to his home Friday night but is ready to open his door to his son, who was in South Dakota when the fire raced through the Superior.
“We’ll make room,” he said.
Meanwhile, for the residents he represented for 20 years on the council — eight of them as mayor — he hopes the city will be kind. That means reducing red tape to a minimum when it comes time to rebuild. Forgiveness of fees and an expediting of permits will be necessary to make the process for those aiming to reclaim their lives as painless as possible.
“That’s the least we can do at this stage,” Sisk said. “This is a challenge that is unparalleled but I’m confident we’ll be up to the challenge. I’ve got a lot of faith in Louisville — in our resiliency and esprit de corps.”
It’s confidence shared by current Louisville Mayor Ashley Stolzmann
“Louisville is a very strong community and we will definitely rebuild our neighborhoods,” she said.
