Tens of thousands of people had to flee, hunted by flames who destroyed entire neighborhoods, Thursday, in this American state.
Le Monde with AFP
Nearly 1,000 homes have been destroyed, hundreds of others have been damaged and three people are missing after fires that have destroyed hundreds of houses Thursday in the American state of Colorado, announced the authorities Saturday 1 er January.
The Toulder County sheriff, Joe shovel, also said Saturday that investigators were still trying to find the cause of the fire that was said on Thursday. The authorities had previously felt that at least 500 houses had been destroyed. They also announced earlier Saturday that two people were missing.
Tens of thousands of people had to flee, driven by flames that destroyed entire neighborhoods “in the blink of an eye”, according to the governor of Colorado Jared Polis. “Families had only a few minutes to put everything they could – their animals, their children – in the car and leave,” he explained.
Snowfall stopped the lamp propagation Friday.
striking damage
The damage is striking: on aerial images, whole streets are hardly more than a lot of steaming ashes. The fire, unlike previous fires, affected suburbs and not just rural areas.
The fires, unusual for the season, would have been caused by the fall of electric lines on arid soil, the flames being fled by strong winds. Colorado has been struck for several years by exceptional drought, like a large part of the American West.
In recent years, this part of the United States has experienced unprecedented fires, particularly in California or Oregon. With global warming, the intensity and frequency of drought and heat wave episodes are still rising, continuing to create ideal conditions for forest or bush fires.