Two people remain missing after a massive fire raged through a suburban area near Denver, Colorado last week. One other person who had earlier been reported missing has been accounted for, authorities said on Monday.
Investigators were still trying to determine what caused the flames to tear through at least 24 square kilometres, leaving nearly 1,000 homes and other buildings torched.
Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle on Saturday said authorities were pursuing a number of tips and had executed a search warrant at “one particular location.” He declined to give details.
“It’s complicated and it’s all covered with a foot of snow,” Mr Pelle said of the scene where the fire started.
“The outcome of that investigation is vital — there is so much at stake. We are going to be professional. We are going to be careful.”
Mr Pelle said officials were aware of a viral video showing a shed on fire in the area where the blaze originated, but noted they do not yet know if the shed was the start of the fire or "secondary", according to CNN.
Utility officials found no downed power lines around where the fire broke out in the area located between Denver and Boulder. The wildfire came unusually late in the year, following an extremely dry autumn and amid a winter nearly devoid of snow, conditions experts say certainly helped the fire spread.
At least 991 homes and other buildings were destroyed, Mr Pelle said: 553 in Louisville, 332 in Superior and 106 in unincorporated parts of the county. Hundreds more were damaged. He cautioned that the tally from the wind-whipped wildfire is not final.
The totals include destroyed barns, outbuildings and other structures, but the vast majority were homes, Boulder County spokesperson Jennifer Churchill said late on Saturday.
Authorities had said earlier no one was missing. But Ms Churchill said that was due to confusion inherent when agencies are scrambling to manage an emergency.
Mr Pelle said officials were organising cadaver teams to search for the missing in the Superior area and in unincorporated Boulder County. The task is complicated by debris from destroyed structures, covered by 20 centimetres of snow dumped by a storm overnight, he said.
At least seven people were injured in the wildfire that erupted in and around Louisville and Superior, the neighbouring towns about 32 kilometres northwest of Denver with a combined population of 34,000.
The blaze, which burned at least 24 square kilometres, was no longer considered an immediate threat — especially with the overnight dumping of snow and frigid temperatures on Saturday.
The snow and low temperatures cast an eerie scene amid still-smouldering remains of homes. Despite the shocking change in weather, the smell of smoke still permeated empty streets blocked off by National Guard troops in Humvees.
The conditions compounded the misery of residents who started off the new year trying to salvage what remained of their homes.
Utility crews struggled to restore electricity and gas service to homes that survived, and dozens of people lined up to get donated space heaters, bottled water and blankets at Red Cross shelters. Xcel Energy urged other residents to use fireplaces and wood stoves to stay warm and keep their pipes at home from freezing.
Families filled a long line of cars waiting to pick up space heaters and bottled water at a Salvation Army distribution centre at the YMCA in Lafayette, just north of Superior.
Monarch High School seniors Noah Sarasin and his twin brother Gavin had been volunteering at that location for two days, directing traffic and distributing donations.
“We have a house, no heat but we still have a house,” Noah Sarasin said. “I just want to make sure that everyone else has heat on this very cold day.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
ITU Abu Dhabi World Triathlon
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Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday (UAE kick-off times)
Borussia Dortmund v Paderborn (11.30pm)
Saturday
Bayer Leverkusen v SC Freiburg (6.30pm)
Werder Bremen v Schalke (6.30pm)
Union Berlin v Borussia Monchengladbach (6.30pm)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Wolfsburg (6.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldof v Bayern Munich (6.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Cologne (9.30pm)
Sunday
Augsburg v Hertha Berlin (6.30pm)
Hoffenheim v Mainz (9pm)
The Abu Dhabi Awards explained:
What are the awards? They honour anyone who has made a contribution to life in Abu Dhabi.
Are they open to only Emiratis? The awards are open to anyone, regardless of age or nationality, living anywhere in the world.
When do nominations close? The process concludes on December 31.
How do I nominate someone? Through the website.
When is the ceremony? The awards event will take place early next year.
The specs
Engine: 5.0-litre supercharged V8
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Power: 575bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: Dh554,000
On sale: now
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Qosty Byogaani
Starring: Hani Razmzi, Maya Nasir and Hassan Hosny
Four stars
The specs: 2018 Genesis G70
Price, base / as tested: Dh155,000 / Dh205,000
Engine: 3.3-litre, turbocharged V6
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 370hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 510Nm @ 1,300rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 10.6L / 100km
The specs: 2018 Nissan Altima
Price, base / as tested: Dh78,000 / Dh97,650
Engine: 2.5-litre in-line four-cylinder
Power: 182hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 244Nm @ 4,000rpm
Transmission: Continuously variable tranmission
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.6L / 100km
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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