More than 1,900 evacuated as Pueblo County wildfire destroys structures
Baku, October 4, AZERTAC
A wind-whipped wildfire in Pueblo County on Monday destroyed at least seven structures and prompted the evacuation of more than 1,200 people over a wide area around the town of Beulah — including a post office and a school, according to Denverpost.
After 10 p.m., Sheriff Kirk M. Taylor announced that the remaining residents of the Beulah Valley would be evacuated overnight. That would bring the total number of those evacuated to 1,950.
“The Beulah Hill Fire moves quickly, reduces visibility and cuts off escape routes with little notice,” he said in a statement. “History has shown, the best time to evacuate is when the fire allows you to evacuate. This fire has laid down for the evening but with the threat expected to continue in the early morning Tuesday the fire’s behavior demonstrates it is prudent to evacuate the remainder of the Beulah Valley tonight.”
Earlier in the day, authorities placed the unincorporated town, about 25 miles southwest of Pueblo, under a pre-evacuation order, as firefighters came from throughout the area to fight the blaze.
By Monday evening, the fire, first spotted east of Beulah near Colorado Highway 78 at about 12:30 p.m., had ravaged 3,000 acres, according to the Incident Command.
By 6:30 p.m. evacuations had been ordered for about 57 people, but over the next two hours more evacuations were announced.
Two hours later, the Pueblo Community Joint Information Center announced that 507 residences and 1,250 people had been evacuated.
It wasn’t immediately known whether any of the seven structures that burned were homes. No injuries were reported.
Throughout the day, winds drove the fire both north and south of Colorado Highway 78.
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