The remains of two people, believed to be a couple, were discovered in their garage with the car packed and ready to flee the raging Black Forest wildfire that by Friday had destroyed an estimated 389 homes and scorched about 15,700 acres near Colorado Springs.
“The car doors were open as though they were loading or grabbing last-minute things and all indications are from the evidence on scene that they were planning to depart very quickly,” said El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa.
As a result of their deaths, a criminal investigation has been launched — a routine procedure until it’s determined exactly how they died. Maketa said someone spoke with the victims by phone as they were preparing to leave when the blaze started Tuesday, and that the person heard popping and crackling sounds in the background.
The announcement of the deaths came as the fire reached 5 percent containment, the first gains firefighters have made after three days.
Still, in less than three days, the fire has surged past the home destruction from last year’s Waldo Canyon wildfire.
An estimated 14,000 homes — about 41,000 residents — have been evacuated, including residents of 1,000 homes inside Colorado Springs. Colorado’s second-largest city, with a population of 430,000, also asked residents of 2,000 more homes to be ready to evacuate.
The fire zone remained at 25 square miles, thanks to lighter winds and firefighters quickly stamping out flare-ups overnight. Some cloud cover and calmer winds earlier in the day seemed to be helping slow the Black Forest Fire and authorities for the first time seemed confident they could stop it. However, the residents of 10 more houses learned Friday that their homes had been destroyed as authorities continued to survey the damage. The homes were burned earlier in the fire. Only one home burned Thursday and none were lost overnight.
Since the blaze started, it’s been fed by high winds that have blown it in several directions. By Thursday the count of homes destroyed jumped from the first estimate of about 100 to 360 as wind drove the fire back into areas that were spared the first day, threatened neighboring counties and jammed roads with evacuees.
All this, while the area continues to recover from the Waldo Canyon fire, which took out 347 homes as it roared from the foothills into Colorado Springs neighborhoods nearly a year ago.
Investigators also were working on how the fire started. They asked the public for tips and photos of the fire in its early stages. “I’m pretty confident natural causes is out the window,” Maketa said.
Within a year, more than 700 homes have been devoured up by fire.
The similarities are eerie, said Cindy Winemiller, an evacuee who was trying to find out if her Black Forest home survived.
So far, she said, it’s not on the list of homes that have been destroyed.
But the scar that is Waldo is in her memory.
“It’s the drought,” she said. “I think it’s just one of those things. In Oklahoma they had the tornadoes.”
Despite the devastation wrought in just a few days, fire officials seemed optimistic.
Rich Harvey, the Type 1 incident commander who took command of the battle at 6 a.m. Thursday, said 750 firefighters and aviation resources fought the blaze to what he called a “draw” in key areas, adding that he expected the same or better in the coming days.
“That’s kind of where I’d like to leave it,” he said. “Five percent containment, troops aggressively engaged from the air and the ground, high cooperation, a little bit of progress and a plan to continue to do that in the future.”
In another sign of optimism, El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn said the county is putting together a plan to return Black Forest residents to their homes.
About the Author
