Colorado fire claims nearly 100 buildings

BOULDER, Colo. – Firefighters intensified their battle Tuesday against a 7,000-acre blaze that destroyed at least 92 structures and damaged another eight, driving residents out of a network of densely populated canyons in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains just outside this outdoors-crazed town.

The fire began Monday morning in pine-studded Fourmile Canyon, causing so much chaos that more than 24 hours later officials hadn’t counted all the damaged buildings. The homes of at least nine firefighters were among those destroyed. There were no reported injuries.

On Tuesday the winds that had fanned the blaze had died down, but an inversion layer of high-pressure air settled over the fire, keeping smoke close to the ground and preventing air tankers from bombarding it with retardant until later in the day.

“It’s the tankers that really help us out,” said Rick Brough, a commander with the Boulder County sheriff’s office. “They can knock this fire down.”

Even with calmer winds, the fire doubled in size overnight and officials cautioned that residents still could not return to see whether their homes were saved.

“This is a very volatile situation,” Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. told reporters after touring the fire scene.

Officials said there is no official cause for the fire, but residents said that emergency calls shortly before the blaze erupted reported that a truck had crashed into a propane tank in the canyon.