Two people missing after wildfire wipes out subdivisions in Colorado

A horse runs through Grasso Park as smoke from nearby fires obscures visibility, on December 30, 2021, in Superior, Colorado. /AP

Two people are reportedly missing after a horrific wildfire tore through Boulder, County, Colorado, Thursday, leveling whole subdivisions and charring more than 6,000 acres.

"We have two missing people still," Boulder Office of Emergency Management spokesperson Jennifer Churchill said Saturday. The office "will continue to investigate", Churchill said. No additional information was provided about the missing persons.

The news came a day after officials said there had been no deaths as a result of blaze, which was miraculous given the Marshall Fire's speed and ferocity, they said. At the time, Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said one person who had been missing Thursday night had been accounted for.

Officials flew over the affected area Friday morning to assess the damage. Subdivisions on the west side of Superior and in Old Town Superior were "totally gone," Pelle said in the news conference later that day, adding the south side of Louisville suffered "catastrophic losses" as well.

"I would estimate it's going to be at least 500 homes (destroyed)," Pelle said. "I would not be surprised if it's 1,000."

Judy Delaware's family lost their Louisville home in the blaze, escaping the fast-moving fires with not much more than their dogs and the clothes on their backs, she said Saturday.

"It was hard to even visualize and conceptualize that our whole neighborhood was destroyed," she said. "We've lived there for so long".

"But seeing it, it's hard to believe when you look at your house, that that's everything. And it just was a pile of rubble," she said.

Authorities announced evacuation orders Thursday as the fire quickly made its way to suburban neighborhoods. Many of those areas remain blocked off because it's "still too dangerous" for residents to return just yet, the sheriff said Friday.

"We saw still active fire in many places this morning, we saw downed power lines, we saw a lot of risk that we're still trying to mitigate," he said. "As soon as residents are able to get back, we're going to let them back. That's our goal."

The origin of the blaze is still under investigation, the sheriff said there were power lines down where the Marshall Fire started.

(With input from agencies)