President Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited Colorado Friday, touring neighborhoods destroyed by the fire that devastated Louisville, Superior, and Boulder County last week, the Denver Post reported. The president met with local first responders and with families who lost their homes, praising them for "the incredible courage and resolve that you all show."
According to Reuters, Biden also took the opportunity to say that "these fires are being supercharged" by climate change and to declare the disaster "a blinking code red for our nation."
Local authorities estimate the fire that ravaged these communities caused at least $513 million in damage and destroyed almost 1,100 homes and structures, The Associated Press reported. One person is confirmed dead.
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Investigators are still working to determine the fire's cause but have narrowed in on a piece of Boulder-area property owned by the Christian fundamentalist sect Twelve Tribes. A barn on the property was filmed burning before the larger blaze broke out.
Per the Denver Post, Air Force One deposited the Bidens at Denver International Airport at around 2 p.m. and whisked them away to Las Vegas, where the president is scheduled attend Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's memorial, before 7 p.m.
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