Marshall Fire

Colorado

A December grass fire here became the most destructive fire in Colorado history in under twelve hours, and snow was what finally stopped it.

disasternatural

At nine minutes past eleven on the morning of December the thirtieth, 2021, someone called 911 about the intersection of Colorado 93 and Marshall Road. A fire engine arrived three minutes later. A ranger was already there. No fire was visible. What they found was a low hanging wire across Marshall Road, so they closed the road. Then they saw smoke. The engine moved south along a dirt road and found a small grass fire at 11:21. Three minutes after that it was out of control. Wind gusts reached a hundred and fifteen miles an hour that day, pushed by the mountain wave effect off the foothills. By noon the fire had crossed three miles east into Superior. Within the hour, tens of thousands of people were told to leave. Snow fell on the night of New Year's Eve and put the fire out. By then it had burned more than a thousand buildings.

This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.

What this was written from
Less than 12 hours after igniting, the fire surpassed the 2013 Black Forest Fire as the state's most destructive in terms of structures lost.

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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