“Hang on to one another:” President Biden promises Marshall fire victims federal help during Boulder County tour
LOUISVILLE — Urging victims of the Marshall fire to “hang on to one another,” President Joe Biden on Friday told devastated families in Boulder County that the federal government “is not going to go away” when it comes to helping thousands of displaced families recover from the deadly Marshall fire.
The president spent a little more than four hours in Colorado on Friday, flying over the burn area in Marine One and then touring the neighborhood around Harper Lake in Louisville on foot, hugging families and first responders against a backdrop of charred foundations and blackened trees.
The fire, which was pushed by fierce winds on Dec. 30 across Superior, Louisville and parts of unincorporated Boulder County, destroyed 1,084 homes and damaged another 149. The Boulder County Assessor’s Office this week placed the total value of residential damage at more than half a billion dollars, making the Marshall fire Colorado’s most destructive wildfire ever.
Seven commercial buildings were destroyed and 30 were damaged, according to estimates released Thursday. A cause of the Marshall fire has not yet been determined.
“But people here and across Boulder County are stepping up for one another,” Biden said from a podium inside the Louisville Recreation and Senior Center, where he met privately with families for more than an hour. “And we’re working closely with Gov. Polis to ensure Colorado has every single resource available. It’s amazing what people do in crises.”
The president’s visit came the same day the Boulder County coroner identified 69-year-old Robert Sharpe as the person whose partial remains were discovered this week during a search for two people missing and feared dead from the fire. Biden shared his sorrow over the loss of life and homes that were destroyed.
The president, who was accompanied on the trip by first lady Jill Biden and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell, said the federal government had already committed firefighting resources to the Marshall fire, while also using satellite imagery from the Department of Defense to help determine the extent of the damage.
“The truth of the matter is that the commitment began the day the fire started,” Biden said.
The president was accompanied by a large contingent of Colorado’s congressional delegation Friday, including Democrats Sen. Michael Bennet, Sen. John Hickenlooper and Rep. Joe Neguse. Gov. Jared Polis also joined them.
I’m grateful for @POTUS‘s visit to Colorado today.
In the wake of disasters like the #MarshallFire, Coloradans are always resilient. With the support of the federal government and everyone working together, I know we will build back stronger than before. https://t.co/wXErydGoYD
— Michael Bennet (@SenatorBennet) January 7, 2022
“It was really important for him to have an opportunity to visit with the families and being able to be a part of those conversations and hearing them as they shared their stories with the president of the trauma that they experienced and their plans for rebuilding and the need for more federal assistance as we recover was really important,” Neguse, a Lafeyette Democrat, said Friday.
The president declared the Marshall fire area a major disaster on New Year’s Day, which allows federal money to start flowing to those who need it for temporary housing, home repairs, uninsured property losses and more.
The congressman said Colorado leaders talked to the president about making Community Block Development grants available to help with housing and they hope to work with Biden to petition Congress for disaster supplemental funding to help with the aftermath of the Marshall fire and tornadoes in Kentucky. They also want to see an increased subsidy on cost share from the federal government for debris removal, Neguse said.
The president’s visit to Boulder County came less than a month after he toured damage from a series of tornadoes that swept through eight states in December, killing 90. Biden, who visited hard-hit Kentucky on Dec. 15, said the federal government would do “whatever it takes, as long as it takes” to get people back on their feet there.
“You will recover and rebuild,” he said last month.
The president noted that these types of wildfires have become more common, calling it a “blinking code red” for the country. He cited the unusually dry conditions along the Front Range as a “tinderbox” for ferocious fires and spoke about ways to mitigate climate change, including some of the renewable energy research that occurs in Colorado.
“We can’t ignore the reality — that these fires are being supercharged, being supercharged by a change in the weather,” he said.
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