Partial human remains were found in the area of last week’s destructive Marshall Fire in Colorado, officials said Wednesday.
Investigators discovered the “partial human remains of an adult” in the 5900 block of Marshall Road in unincorporated Boulder County, according to a news release from the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office.
The Boulder County Coroner’s Office will identify the remains and determine the cause and manner of death, the sheriff’s office said. NBC News has reached out to the coroner’s office for comment.
Two missing persons investigations were launched after the Marshall Fire, the state’s most destructive wildfire yet, started Dec. 30.
Jan. 4, 202201:49
The inferno caused Gov. Jared Polis to declare a state of emergency in the area and evacuate tens of thousands of people as rare, wind-driven flames tore through neighborhoods at great speed. Nearly 1,000 homes were destroyed and almost 130 other structures were damaged in the blaze.
“This was consuming football field lengths of land in seconds,” Sheriff Joe Pelle said in a news conference Dec. 30.
The sheriff’s office said investigators remain active at the Marshall Road scene where the partial human remains were found.
Pelle previously said officials were looking for a man in that area. Meanwhile, the search for a missing woman in the 1500 block of South 76th Street in Superior is ongoing, according to The Associated Press.
As of Wednesday evening, the Marshall Fire spanned 6,026 acres and was 100 percent contained, according to the Boulder Office of Emergency Management.
The Marshall Fire found fuel in the foothills and in neighborhoods along part of the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, in suburbs only about 20 miles from Denver. The blaze gained traction, pushed by whipping winds amid “record dryness” in the region, federal forecasters said.
Snow over the New Year’s weekend helped snuff out the flames.
Pelle on Monday said the investigation into the cause of the blaze is “in full force and full swing.” The sheriff’s office confirmed over the weekend it had served a search warrant at a property seen at least partly ablaze in the early stages of the fire.
President Joe Biden will visit Boulder County to tour the Marshall Fire damage on Friday.
Dennis Romero contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
