NEDERLAND, Colo. (NBC) — The Cold Springs Fire burning near Nederland, Colorado nearly doubled in size to 538 acres Sunday, forcing nearly 2,000 people to evacuate.
“It’s super dangerous in there,” 17-year firefighting veteran Charlie Schmidtmann said. “It gets so hot so quick.”
Schmidtmann was one of the first responders sent to battle the fire on Saturday after it was reported.
“It was something like I have never seen,” he said. “We couldn’t walk fast enough to the head of the fire and it just started taking off.”
In three hours Sunday, the fire spread from 320 acres to more than 538. First responders have confirmed three homes have burned down.
One of them was Charlie’s.
“I turned around and I looked and I saw there was a fire truck sitting in front of my house. [I was] just thinking it was doing some protection and then I noticed the house wasn’t there,” he said.
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