Explosive new Colorado wildfire prompts 3,000 evacuations in Boulder County

Boulder County fire in Colorado
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/NBC News)

A new wildfire spread rapidly in Boulder County, Colorado, over the weekend, prompting the evacuations of at least 3,000 people. The CalWood Fire began burning Saturday about 50 miles southeast of the Cameron Peak Fire, the largest in state history. "It just exploded," Mike Wagner, division chief with the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, said of the CalWood fire. "We do believe multiple homes were probably lost. It's still too dynamic to get in and begin to assess."

The Cameron Peak Fire started in mid-August, and has burned more than 317 square miles. The cause of the new fire was not immediately determined, although investigators said there had been no lightning strikes or other weather events that could have started the CalWood Fire. The area has had high winds and "critically dry" conditions for weeks, fire officials said.

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Harold Maass

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at TheWeek.com. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 launch of the U.S. print edition. Harold has worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, Fox News, and ABC News. For several years, he wrote a daily round-up of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance. He lives in North Carolina with his wife and two sons.