Thousands flee fires near Boulder, Colorado
<p>A spotter plane and large slurry bomber pass over a burning home in Bolder, Colo., on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Home owner Eleanor Mahoney joins a group of Sunshine residents to discuss the fate of their homes on Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2010. Gov. Bill Ritter declared a state of emergency Tuesday as officials nearly doubled the fire's estimated size to more than 7,100 acres, or 11 square miles. At one point the plume from the fire could be seen in Wyoming, 90 miles to the north.</p>
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - David Myers knew it was time to leave when he looked out into the forest and spotted bright red flames towering skyward. Then came a blinding cloud of smoke and a deafening roar as the fire ripped through the wilderness.
"You can hear just this consumption of fuel, just crackling and burning. And the hardest thing is ... you couldn't see it because at the point the smoke was that thick," he said.
Myers was among about 3,500 people who desperately fled the fire after it erupted in a tinder-dry canyon northwest of Boulder on Monday and swallowed up dozens of homes. Residents packed everything they could into their cars and sped down narrow, winding roads to safety, encountering a vicious firestorm that melted the bumper of one couple's van.
Myers said Tuesday afternoon that people told him they believed his house was destroyed. He said while he's sure he will experience "a varied level of emotions" about losing it, he remembers how he felt when fleeing the wildfire.
"All that really matters to us was my wife and I getting each other, getting the dogs, and getting out of there," Myers said. "We grabbed a couple of things, but when we look around, and we go, 'What should I take?' it all seems pretty irrelevant."
Authorities said Tuesday night they counted 92 structures that have been destroyed and another eight that have been damaged. A government website listed the addresses of 53 homes destroyed based on a survey of only 5 to 10 percent of the burned area.
Gov. Bill Ritter declared a state of emergency Tuesday as officials nearly doubled the fire's estimated size to more than 7,100 acres, or 11 square miles, based on better mapping. At one point, the plume from the fire could be seen in Wyoming, 90 miles to the north.
Authorities investigated reports that the fire started when a car crashed into a propane tank. They are also trying to figure out why an automated phone alert system failed for two hours during the evacuation, forcing authorities to go door-to-door to search for people in harm's way.
The fire caused no known injuries as residents appeared to get out of the area in time. But many spent Tuesday in shelters wondering if their homes still existed.