Officials call it a miracle that there've been no reports of deaths in the blazes near Denver, which destroyed at least 500 homes — and perhaps twice that number. In some cases families had just minutes to flee.
That's according to local and state officials who spoke at a Friday morning briefing.
"There are still areas burning inside the fire zone, around homes and shrubbery," said Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle,"but we're not expecting to see any growth in the fire."Polis flew over the affected areas Friday morning and described what he called fires that"hit close to home for so many of us."
"Many families [had] minutes to get whatever they could, their pets, their kids into the car and leave," Polis said."The last 24 hours have been devastating, [but] we might have our very own New Year's miracle on our hands if it holds up that there was no loss of life.""I would estimate it's going to be at least 500 homes," he said."I would not be surprised if it's a thousand.
Pelle said he knows that residents want to return to their homes"as soon as possible to assess damage." But, he said, in many of those neighborhoods that are currently blocked off, it's still too dangerous to return.
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