“We woke up from a nap with our 4-month-old son and we smell smoke in the air,” Stanley told KDVR. “We were like, ‘What is that?’ We go outside, we see flames over the hill. We were like, “We need to leave now.’ We gathered the things that we could … my husband tried to run to the neighbors. No one was home and we had no idea how we were gonna get out.”
The Marshall Fire, driven by heavy winds, had ripped through a minimum of 6,000 acres near Superior and neighboring Louisville as of Friday. At least 500 homes were confirmed destroyed in the fire, while Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said during a news conference that the total could reach 1,000 homes by the time crews finish assessing the damage.
While at least six people were reported injured during the rare winter fire, there were no reports of deaths, something that Colorado Governor Jared Polis called “our very own New Year’s miracle.” The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Officials initially suggested that downed power lines could be to blame but the Boulder Office of Emergency Management said that investigators had found no evidence to support the theory as of Friday.
