On a ridge in Louisville with a stunning view of the Flatirons stood a six-bedroom, five-bath home, now reduced to a pile of ash by the Marshall fire, one of more than 1,000 homes in Louisville, Superior and unincorporated Boulder County destroyed on Dec. 30. The lot, rubble and all, went up for sale in […]
Superior
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Economy, Housing, News, Wildfire
Boulder County housing prices are still climbing 6 weeks after Marshall fire
Sandra Thomas-Comenole can’t rest yet. Seven weeks after her family lost their home to the Marshall fire, she, her husband and three of their children are in their third house since the fire tore through neighborhoods in Superior, Louisville and unincorporated Boulder County. As the weeks tick by since the fire, Thomas-Comenole and her family […]
Posted inNews
Emergency alerts were a problem long before the Marshall fire, reports show
More than 10,000 calls warning residents to flee failed when the Waldo Canyon fire exploded near Colorado Springs in 2012. Thousands of people were left without warnings as flames destroyed 347 homes and killed two people. That same year, evacuation alerts were sent to the wrong phone numbers during the Lower North Fork fire — […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Wildfire
Long before the Marshall fire, Boulder County fire chiefs wanted a more robust response on dry, windy days
Two years before a wind-whipped grassfire gobbled up nearly 1,100 homes, Boulder County rural and city fire chiefs asked their dispatch center for more robust response to fire calls on windy, dry days. Their request — along with an even older one for improved communication between the three dispatch centers in the county — has […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News, Wildfire
“The only piece of their life that’s normal”: Schools are scrambling to help 800 kids displaced by the Marshall fire
After the Marshall fire tore through Boulder County on Dec. 30, razing more than 1,000 homes in its path, the count of students without stable housing in Boulder Valley School District swelled from about 300 to more than 1,100. Figuring out how to keep their children attending classes wasn’t necessarily the first priority for families […]
Posted inClimate, Coloradans, Environment, News, Wildfire
Data may be Colorado’s best bet to mitigate increasing wildfire risk on the Front Range
DOUGLAS COUNTY — The future of climate change and suburban firefighting in Colorado is here, in a dull brown meadow at the corner of Chatridge Court and U.S. 85. They know the future will arrive on this spot, because the kind of raging grass fires near thousands of suburban homes that keep emergency planners awake at […]
Posted inNews, Wildfire
Investigators find small bone fragments in search for 91-year-old woman missing after the Marshall fire
Investigators have found small bone fragments at the property of a 91-year-old woman who was reported missing after the Marshall fire. Scientific testing is underway to determine if the collected fragments are human, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday. The search at a property in Superior was for Edna Nadine Turnbull, who was last […]
Posted inClimate, Coloradans, News, Wildfire
Amid the charred ruins of Colorado wildfires, a sense of community evolves with the rebuild
About this story: Sun staff writer Kevin Simpson wrote and compiled this account with contributions from Jason Blevins, Jennifer Brown, Tamara Chuang, Shannon Najmabadi and Olivia Prentzel. Kiki Turner stood in front of the house where she grew up, now a pile of ashes in a scorched and flattened neighborhood. She could see for miles, […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: The Marshall fire showed climate change has come to our backyard
I have a growing realization that all of humanity is interconnected and utterly interdependent. As we contemplate the eerie vacuum of space where our homes once stood in Superior, I fear for future victims of floods and fires. I fear for humanity and the planet we have been entrusted with. I wonder whether humanity can […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: The fire in my legislative district had roots in the fossil fuels we put in our cars
Last week, we experienced Colorado’s most destructive fire in its history. It ripped through the heart of our communities, leaving a devastating path of destruction in its wake. Tens of thousands of people, including myself, were forced to evacuate, and more than 1,000 homes and businesses were destroyed. I spent the days following the fire […]