As the fire raged on Thursday, long lines of cars sped out of the area. According to Cusana, affiliated with CNN, traffic was crawling outside the small town of Assets Park, with hundreds trying to get out.
Families who have already fled the area are watching the flames rising from the cameras of their homes. One woman saw a fire rush towards her family’s cabin and did not know if there was anything left from her house.
“I can’t begin to tell you, when I opened the app it was very bursting at the seams and I saw that our driveway and the hill were on fire,” Katie Brown told CNN-affiliated Kusa. “It was awful, it was awful to watch. I’ve never felt anything like this before.”
Residents are numb with disbelief
A large layer of smoke can be seen hanging in the area blocking the sun as people filled car highways trying to escape a fire in Larimer County, Colorado. A resident who was told his home had been destroyed did not know how to react.
“You’re numb. You’ve been told it’s gone, but you don’t want to believe it. So you’ll survive until you see the ashes,” he told Kusa.
Another woman who was told she had lost everything says it’s still hard to believe. “You think Christmas things like you just introduced a gift for your grandchildren and the bedrooms you prepared for them. And you never think it will happen to you,” Marjorie Krensten told CNN’s KMGH.
But some who are fleeing the flames are still optimistic. “It’s sad, a lot of people are affected by it. We’re lucky right now … but tomorrow is another day,” one person told Kusa.
Dry weather conditions
Weather conditions aren’t helping either.
Strong winds and dry weather accelerate the explosive growth of fires in Colorado. And weather conditions are likely to remain the same for the next few days.
The weather will remain dry until Friday night, when light rain-like showers will begin and then turn to snow over the weekend, according to CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller. Two-inch weekend snow could eventually contain flames of firefighters. So far, 93% of the west is under some kind of drought.
The fire is still raging
According to a recent update by Accident Commander Noel Livingston, the pre-troubled fire in Colorado increased by about 50,000 acres on Thursday.
Livingston said the kind of growth the fire is experiencing is “like wood, nothing heard for a fire in this part of the world.”
“Today was a very trying day for us, as well as a number of other fires along the cold front roads,” Livingston said. He added that most of the concerned areas were on fire due to the cold front fire during the afternoon.
Livingston said the incident command has orders for additional resources to fight the fire. He added that the cause of the fire was still being investigated.
Rebecca Rise and Justin Sutton of CNN contributed to this report.
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