One couple returned home on Friday to find the mailbox about the only thing left standing. Charred cars and a burned trampoline lay outside smouldering houses. On some blocks, homes reduced to smoking ruins stood next to ones practically unscathed by the flames.
Colorado residents driven from their neighbourhoods by a terrifying, wind-whipped wildfire got their first heartbreaking look at the damage the morning after, while others could only wait and wonder whether their homes were among the more than 500 feared destroyed.
At least seven people were injured, but remarkably there were no immediate reports of any deaths or anyone missing in the aftermath of the blaze outside Denver.
Cathy Glaab found that her home in the town of Superior where she lives with her husband had been turned into a pile of charred and twisted debris. It was one of seven houses in a row that burned to the ground.
"The mailbox is standing," Glaab said, trying to crack a smile through tears. She added sadly, "So many memories."
Despite the devastation, she said they intend to rebuild the house they'd had since 1998. They love that the land backs up to a natural space, and they have a view of the mountains from the back.
Rick Dixon feared there would be nothing to return to after he saw firefighters try to save his burning home on the news. On Friday, Dixon, his wife and 21-year-old son found it mostly gutted, with a gaping hole in the roof but still standing. Only smouldering rubble remained where several neighbouring homes once stood in a row immediately next to theirs.
"We thought we lost everything," he said, as the family held his mother-in-law's china in padded containers. They also retrieved sculptures that belonged to Dixon's father and piles of clothes still on hangers.
The wildfire erupted on Thursday in and around Louisville and Superior, neighbouring towns about 32km northwest of Denver with a combined population of 34,000.
Tens of thousands were ordered to flee as the flames swept over drought-stricken neighbourhoods with alarming speed, propelled by guests up to 169km/h.
At a Costco in Superior, two store employees came running towards the checkout lines, one of them shouting, "Everyone evacuate, evacuate, evacuate!" said Katrina Peterson, who was inside.
A video she made showed dark skies and whirling debris outside. The falling ash filled her ears, and she had to squint to keep it from getting in her eyes. The store was left standing.
The cause of the blaze was under investigation. Emergency authorities said utility officials found no downed power lines around where the fire broke out.
With some roads still closed on Friday, people walked back to their homes to get clothes or medicine, turn the water off to prevent the pipes from freezing or see if they still had a house. They left carrying backpacks and pulling suitcases or wagons down the sidewalk.
David Marks stood on a hillside overlooking Superior with others, using a pair of binoculars and a long-range camera lens to see if his house, and those of his neighbours, were still there, but he couldn't tell for sure whether his place was okay. He said at least three friends lost their homes.
He had watched from the hillside as the neighbourhood burned.
"By the time I got up here, the houses were completely engulfed," he said. "I mean, it happened so quickly. I've never seen anything like that … Just house after house, fences, just stuff flying through the air, just caught on fire."
By first light on Friday, the towering flames that had lit up the night sky had subsided and the winds had died down. Light snow soon began to fall and the blaze, which burned at least 24sq km, was no longer considered an immediate threat.
"We might have our very own New Year's miracle on our hands if it holds up that there was no loss of life," Governor Jared Polis said, noting that many people had just minutes to evacuate.
The wildfire broke out unusually late in the year, following an extremely dry fall and amid a winter nearly devoid of snow so far.
Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said more than 500 homes were probably destroyed. He and the governor said as many as 1000 homes might have been lost, though that won't be known until crews can assess the damage.
"It's unbelievable when you look at the devastation that we don't have a list of 100 missing persons," the sheriff said.
The sheriff said some communities were reduced to just "smoking holes in the ground". He urged residents to wait for the all-clear to go back because of the danger of fire and fallen power lines.
Sarah Owens, her husband, adult son and their dog got out of their Superior home within 10 minutes of learning about the evacuation from a Facebook post. But as everyone tried leaving by way of the winding streets of the well-to-do Rock Creek neighbourhood, it took them 90 minutes to go 3.2km.
"The good news is I think our house may be okay," Owens said.
But from now on, she said, she plans to have a bag packed in case of another fire.
"I never thought a brush fire could cause this kind of destruction," Owens said. "I want to stay here. No matter where you live, there are always going to be natural disasters."
Just north of Superior in Louisville, Bruce and Mary Janda faced the loss of their home of 25 years in person on Friday after learning it had been destroyed through a neighbour's photos.
"We knew that the house was totalled but I felt the need to see it, see what the rest of the neighbourhood looked like," Bruce Janda said. "We're a very close-knit community on this street. We all know each other and we all love each other. It's hard to see this happen to all of us."
The two neighbouring towns are filled with middle- and upper-middle-class subdivisions with shopping centres, parks and schools. The area is between Denver and Boulder, home to the University of Colorado.
Scientists say climate change is making weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.
Ninety per cent of Boulder County is in severe or extreme drought, and it hasn't seen substantial rainfall since mid-summer. Denver set a record for consecutive days without snow before it got a small storm on December 10, its last snowfall before the wildfires broke out.
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Associated Press writer Thomas Peipert contributed to this report. Nieberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Associated Press writer Brady McCombs contributed to this story from Salt Lake City.
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