About 2,000 people have been asked to evacuate, a sheriff says
(CNN) — A raging, fast-moving Colorado wildfire continued to grow Sunday, prompting evacuations as some 14,000 acres burned, authorities said.
About 2,000 people had been asked to leave their homes as the High Park fire sprawled in multiple directions, Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith said Sunday afternoon.
Firefighters’ primary goal is to get people out of harm’s way and try to save as many buildings as possible, he added. Still, the sheriff admitted much is still beyond authorities’ control, thanks to low humidity, high temperatures and dry brush fueling the flames.
“(There is) no hope for containment at this point,” Smith said. “Really, Mother Nature is driving this fire.”
Responding to “rumors” that several people have died because of the fire, the sheriff said only that “we have a single person we still can’t account for, in a location we believe somebody could have burned.”
He also said authorities are looking into a report that two hikers were missing in the area of the blaze.
At least 18 structures have been lost or severely damaged, and many others are threatened, according to InciWeb, the U.S. multi-agency Incident Fire Response website.
Smith said that he’s been struck seeing “several structures surrounded by black that were still standing,” indicating the fire had gone all around but left them untouched.
Crews working from dozens of fire engines have had some success safeguarding some homes and businesses. Yet the sheriff said “hundreds of homes” need protecting — ceding some may not be able to saved.
The wildfire’s erratic nature is complicating efforts: It is not just moving in one direction and, in some cases, is returning to scorch areas it had already burned, according to the sheriff.
“This fire is just running crazy,” Smith said.
The blaze began early Saturday morning and was about two acres when fire crews first responded around 9:30 a.m., sheriff’s office spokesman Nick Christensen said earlier. But it quickly and exponentially grew to 8,000 acres by day’s end and was even larger Sunday.
There has been no definitive determination as to its cause, though authorities so far “have not seen any indication of a man-started fire,” Smith said.
While temperatures had cooled somewhat, low humidity and sustained winds of 15 mph to 20 mph — and gusts as strong as 40 mph — continued to fan the blaze Sunday.
At least 250 firefighters, along with air tankers and helicopters, were spearheading the fire-control effort on the ground and in the air, officials said.
Plus, sheriff’s office employees and local firefighters were going door-to-door urging people to leave, with members of a wedding party among those forced out. Some evacuees have taken shelter at a middle school in La Porte.
A shortage of resources is compounding the problem, Smith had said late Saturday. He said a lot of regional resources are already deployed fighting other outbreaks, such as the Whitewater Baldy fire in New Mexico.
