Dec 31, 2021: Tens of thousands of residents of two communities in the U.S. state of Colorado have been ordered to evacuate following a forest-fueled forest fire that engulfed parts of the area in smoky and orange skies and destroyed hundreds of homes.

At least one first responder and six others were injured, although Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pele acknowledged that the severity of the fire could lead to more injuries and deaths as winds reach 105 mph throughout the region.

The 21,000 Louisville residents were asked to evacuate on Thursday after an order was issued to evacuate 13,000 people in Superior. Neighboring towns are located about 32 kilometers (20 miles) northwest of the state capital Denver, a city of over 715,000 people. A high flame of smoke was visible from the forest fire in Denver. A Reuters photo also showed several buildings burning in the Superior area on the outskirts of Boulder.

At least 580 homes, a hotel and a shopping center were burned, the report said. According to the Denver Post, the fire is the most devastating in Colorado history in terms of the number of homes destroyed.

Governor Jared Polis declared a state of emergency to allow the use of disaster funding to mobilize emergency response efforts and mobilize the Colorado National Guard and other state resources as needed. The area near the U.S. highway was also reportedly closed due to the fire. A fire northwest of Superior was one of several that started in the area when winds reached 169 kilometers per hour (105 miles per hour).

The National Weather Service (NWS) said in a social media post that small fires were also reported in at least two areas. The meteorological agency warned that the rapid fire was creating a “fatal situation” in some areas. Mandatory evacuations have been ordered in all areas of Louisville, except for two districts, according to the police department. The extent of the property damage was not immediately known, but a news station broadcast footage of homes engulfed in flames near Louisville.

A fire on the outskirts of the Denver metropolitan area has dried up bones due to a severe drought in eastern Colorado, after several days of heavy snowfall in the Rocky Mountains in the west.

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