Video Shows Parents And Children Fleeing Colorado Chuck E. Cheese As Wildfire Approaches
on Dec 30, 2021
An afternoon of family fun turned into a nightmare for guests at a Superior, Colorado, Chuck E. Cheese Thursday after wind unexpectedly drove a wildfire into the area.
A video shared to social media by Jason Fletcher shows frightened parents and children rushing out of the restaurant after flames were spotted on the lawn outside. Fletcher told Insider that they noticed some smoke outside, but didn’t think anything of it and thought that the smoke was being blown in from a wildfire in another part of the state.
“Then my wife noticed the flames, and that’s when she called out to everybody,” Fletcher said.
In the video, chaos ensues as parents yell for their children and rush to the exit. One child can be heard saying “I’m scared.” When a woman approaches the exit, she realizes that she can’t open the doors due to the force of the wind. With the help of others, the doors were pushed open and the people rushed to their cars.
A state of emergency was declared by Governor Jared Polis on Thursday afternoon after high winds fueled the fires that were burning along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Wind speeds reportedly reached 11o mph and more than 30,000 people in Boulder County, northwest of Denver, have been evacuated.
Sheriff Joe Pelle estimated 580 homes or other structures in and around Superior may have been lost. A shopping center and a hotel in Superior also were engulfed by the flames. Gov. Jared Polis said the flames were traveling the length of a football field in just seconds.
Watch the terrifying video from Chuck E. Cheese below.
