Insurance claims for Boulder fire hit $217 million
Aspen, CO Colorado
BOULDER, Colo. – Insurance companies estimate that the fire that swept through the canyons west of Boulder on Labor Day caused an estimated $217 million in damages, dwarfing Colorado’s previous record set by the Hayman Fire in 2002.
The estimate from the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association includes destroyed homes, smoke damage, destroyed or damaged personal belongings and vehicles, and living expenses.
Insurance adjusters began assessing the damage last week shortly after firefighters contained the blaze.
The fire that quickly spread among treetops blackened roughly 10 square miles and destroyed at least 166 homes.
The Hayman Fire southwest of Denver scorched 215 square miles and destroyed more than 130 homes, causing $46.1 million in property damage that has been adjusted for inflation.
Many counties along the Front Range and the mountains have issued fire bans and many parts of the state remain under a Red Flag warning from the National Weather Service, which means dry and windy conditions make conditions ripe for a fire.
Crews have contained a 40-acre wildfire on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park that briefly forced the closure of Trail Ridge Road.
Park officials said Monday that crews are mopping up and expect to declare the fire contained Tuesday.
Officials say the fire didn’t threaten any structures or campgrounds, but people camping five miles north of the blaze decided to leave.
The cause is under investigation.
Fire officials say a 30-acre grass fire Sunday in Fort Collins damaged a garage and threatened eight homes on. The cause of that fire is also under investigation.
Genstar’s Jean-Pierre Conte sued in Aspen by ex-girlfriend Hillary Thomas
The former girlfriend of Jean-Pierre Conte, the chairman and managing director of the private equity firm Genstar Capital, filed suit Thursday in Aspen claiming that Conte committed assault, battery, and violated the terms of a 2021 separation agreement. Hillary Thomas claims in her lawsuit that during her more than nine years with Conte, she helped parent his four children and her two children “whom they raised in a blended family.”
