DENVER, Colo. — President Joe Biden will travel to Colorado on Friday to survey the damage caused by a wildfire at the end of December, which destroyed nearly 1,000 homes and other buildings in the suburbs northwest of Denver.
Biden is scheduled to tour a neighborhood in Louisville before meeting with families affected by the Marshall Fire at a nearby community center, where he’s expected to deliver brief remarks about his administration’s response to the wildfire. He will be joined by first lady Jill Biden.
The Marshall Fire barreled through Boulder County at the end of December, ripping through towns including Superior and Louisville, both about 20 miles outside of Denver. The wildfire happened unusually late in the year following an extraordinarily dry and warm fall. It prompted the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents.
Biden declared the fire a major disaster last week, opening up federal funding and assistance to those impacted.
Most people were able to escape the fire. Out of roughly 35,000 people who were evacuated from their homes, two people remain unaccounted for. The missing people are presumed dead.
The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday that investigators found partial human remains in an area near where they suspect the blaze could have originated. The source of the fire is still unknown, but Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle has said that an investigation is underway.
The blaze hit during one of the warmest Decembers ever recorded in Denver and during “record dryness” for the region, federal forecasters said.
Wildfires in Colorado typically occur in the state’s more mountainous and rural regions. The Marshall Fire, however, was unique in that it blazed through drought-stricken suburban neighborhoods between Denver and Boulder, regions of the state that have not been thought of as vulnerable to wildfires.
Experts have said that climate change helped fuel the rare wildfire. The ground, usually moist from snow at this time of year, was dry and flammable, as a result of warm temperatures and a lack of precipitation in recent months.
Following his visit in Colorado, Biden is expected to Las Vegas for former Sen. Harry Reid’s funeral on Saturday.
— via www.nbcnews.com
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