Colorado wildfire victims begin new year surveying destruction

The remains of the Element by Westin hotel in Superior, Colorado (Eugene Garcia/AP)

Hundreds of Colorado residents who had expected to ring in 2022 in their homes are instead starting off the new year trying to salvage what remains of them after a wind-whipped wildfire tore through the suburbs of Denver.

Families forced to flee the flames with little warning returned to their neighbourhoods on Friday to find a patchwork of devastation. In some streets, homes reduced to smoking ruins stood next to others practically unscathed by the fires.