These are evacuation centers:

• Lafayette YMCA  (2800 Dagny Way, Lafayette, CO 80026) (Pets only allowed at this site)
• Rocky Mountain Christian Church (9447 Niwot Road, Niwot, CO 80503)
• Longmont Senior Center (910 Longs Peak Ave, Longmont, CO 80501)
• 1STBANK Center (11450 Broomfield Ln, Broomfield, CO 80021)

The first three sites listed are overnight shelters. If you are contagious with COVID-19 and need to evacuate, go to the COVID Recover Center at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church (3485 Stanford Ct, Boulder, CO, 80305).

Below we have placed maps of the burn area and evacuation zones. In the burn area map, you can use the search bar in the top right to enter your address and find out if your home is inside the wildfire's perimeter (note: not every structure inside the burn area has been destroyed or damaged).

Boil order

Both Superior and Louisville residents should boil water prior to consumption until further notice.

How you can help 

We've put together this article which lists the ways people can help those affected by the fires. It also lists some other resources for those who are impacted and looking for help. 

Timeline of events

The fires started Thursday morning. The first fire was the Middle Fork Fire, but that fire did not destroy any homes.

The Marshall Fire has been much more vicious. It started around 11 a.m. near South Foothills Highway and Marshall Road. As of 5 p.m. Thursday, it had grown to 1,600 acres.

"This fire was consuming football field lengths of land in seconds," the sheriff said. "This was a horrific event."

In terms of property destroyed, the Marshall Fire is believed to be the most destructive fire in state history.

Pelle previously believed down power lines were the cause of the fire. But an update posted at 1 p.m. on December 31  said Xcel has inspected all of their lines within the ignition area and found no downed powerlines. They did find some compromised communication lines that may have been misidentified as powerlines. Typically, communications lines (telephone, cable, internet, etc.) would not be the cause of a fire.

The full investigation is still ongoing and we will share more updates as they become available.

Due to Thursday's extremely high winds, aerial firefighting was not an option.

Just before 1 p.m. Thursday, the Boulder County Office of Emergency Management announced an evacuation order for all of Superior. 

Around 2 p.m., an evacuation order was issued for the City of Louisville.

“In the case of evacuation head east or north,” the city's police department tweeted. “Do not evacuate to the south.”

Governor Jared Polis declared a state of emergency around 3:15 p.m.

"The declaration allows the state to access disaster emergency funds to support the emergency response efforts in Boulder and provide state resources including the use of the Colorado National Guard, Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control and activation of the State Emergency Operations Center," the governor's office said in a news release.

The harrowing grass fires—unusual for this time of year—were made worse by high winds. Some areas near Boulder County saw wind gusts up to 105 miles per hour Thursday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

Boulder OEM is posting frequent updates on its website. You can follow along here.

Avista Adventist Hospital in Louisville, which is operated by Centura Health, evacuated its NICU, ICU and emergency department patients because of the fire. The patients were transported to Longmont United Hospital and St. Anthony North Hospital.

If you have a loved one who is a patient at Avista Adventist Hospital, you can call 303-661-1848 for updates.

On Twitter, Polis said, "Prayers for thousands of families evacuating from the fires in Superior and Boulder County."

"Please keep the people of Boulder County and our firefighters in your prayers as we grapple with terrible and unprecedented fires in our community," U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Lafayette) tweeted.

The weather and climate surrounding these fires

Boulder County is a winter storm warning starting December 31 at 5 a.m. The NWS said the area could see up to 8 inches of snow. However, a majority of Boulder County is currently in "extreme drought," according to the latest data from the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Boulder has had just 1.6” of precipitation since August 1, 2021, according to 9News meteorologist Chris Bianchi. It was a historically hot and dry summer and fall in the area. That, mixed with 100-mile-per-hour wind gusts, led to prime wildfire conditions.

Decades of data show fire seasons are becoming longer and more frequent. A 2015 study from the U.S. Forest Service, for example, found that “parts of the western United States and Mexico, Brazil, and East Africa now face wildfire seasons that are more than a month longer than they were 35 years ago.” The researchers concluded that the main drivers for the extended fire seasons are linked to global warming and climate change.

In September of 2021, President Joe Biden paid a visit to Colorado to discuss the climate crisis.

“A drought or a fire doesn't see a property line. It doesn't give a damn which party you belong to,” Biden said during his remarks in Golden, Colorado. “Disasters aren't going to stop; that's the nature of the climate threat … But we know what we have to do, we just need to summon the courage and the creativity to do it."

This is a developing story and it will be updated.

Kyle Cooke is the digital media manager at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach him at kylecooke@rmpbs.org.