Colorado wildfire displaces 19,000 people

BOULDER, Colo. — A wildfire near Boulder, Colorado, that had burned more than 190 acres by Sunday evening prompted the weekend evacuations of roughly 19,000 people and threatened an estimated 8,000 homes near the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research.

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Dubbed the NCAR Fire, the blaze began at about 2 p.m. local time Saturday scorched some 122 acres by 7 p.m. and was roughly 21% contained by 9 a.m. Sunday, KUSA reported.

“We have evacuated two areas nearby: Table Mesa area on the eastern side of south Boulder and also Eldorado Canyon,” Marya Washburn, spokesperson for Boulder Fire-Rescue, told the TV station, noting that multiple aircraft routes were executed over the blaze.

No structural damage or injuries had been reported by Sunday afternoon, fire officials said during a news conference.

“We’re going to continue to try and corral this fire up into the rocks, into the snow, which is really one of our big holding features right now, and one of the reasons that we’re having really, again, good success,” Michael Smith, the incident commander in Boulder County, told The New York Times on Sunday.

Although investigators on Sunday pinpointed the fire’s origin area near Bear Creek Canyon, but the cause of the blaze remained unclear, the newspaper reported.

The NCAR Fire comes on the heels of the Marshall Fire that tore through suburban neighborhoods between Denver and Boulder in December, forcing tens of thousands of evacuations and destroying about 1,000 homes, the Times reported.

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WIldland fire near NCAR in Boulder, Colorado BOULDER, CO - MARCH 26: The NCAR fire burns in the foothills south of the National Center for Atmospheric Research on March 26, 2022 in Boulder, Colorado. The NCAR fire prompted evacuations in south Boulder and pre-evacuation warning for Eldorado Springs.The wildfire broke out near the National Center for Atmospheric Research in southwestern Boulder on Saturday afternoon, prompting evacuation orders for parts of the city and pre-evacuation notices for Eldorado Springs, according to authorities. Boulder police initially said about 1,200 residences had been ordered to evacuate due to what has been named the NCAR fire. But a short time later, police tweeted a map that showed nearly all of south Boulder under evacuation. The Boulder Office of Emergency Management now says that map was wider than required, and that the actual evacuation area is "u201cfrom NCAR to Baseline Road, east to U.S. 36, back down to Broadway, and straight west to NCAR again."u201d"nThe town of Superior posted a notice saying its staff had been in contact with a Boulder County sheriff"u2019s sergeant who said the fire is about 20 acres in size and moving south/southeast toward Eldorado Springs in southwestern Boulder County. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images) (Helen H. Richardson/Denver Post via Getty Images)

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