SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Thursday morning, powerful wildfires broke out near Boulder, Colorado. The fires forced tens of thousands from their homes as the flames tore through neighborhoods, with authorities reporting that more than 500 homes may have been destroyed.

By this morning the flames had, for the most part, subsided. Curt Nesbitt, husband of former KELOLAND News anchor Carol Nesbitt, spoke with us from Thornton, Colorado, where the couple currently lives.

Nesbitt says that there was quite a lot of smoke in the air over the past 24 hours, which has now started to dissipate. “We’re about 8-10 miles east — [the fire] was due west of us, and the wind was blowing directly towards us, so it was very smoky.”

Nesbitt says the couple used to live in Broomfield, a neighboring town only a few miles away. “In Broomfield, where we were living, was near the Flatiron mall — and that whole area was evacuated.”

Nesbitt, fortunately, did not have to leave his home.

While his home wound up remaining a safe distance from the flames, Nesbitt says there was a good amount of uncertainty throughout Thursday night.

“To tell you the truth, yesterday I was a little concerned,” said Nesbitt. “With the winds at 50-60mph — you kind of get concerned. Any kind of embers can blow that far, and we have a lot of open space to our west. You kind of get the feeling like you don’t know if it’s going to come your way or not.”

Those embers were very much a cause for concern. “We’ve had such a drought,” said Nesbitt. “We’ve had one and a half inches of moisture since August.”

Nesbitt says snow is now expected, with a couple of inches set to fall. “It’s coming too late,” he lamented, “for all the people in Superior and Louisville (two towns hit by the fire).”

Nesbitt stayed up till midnight to watch the news coverage of the fire. There was a sense of relief he felt when he realized his neighborhood would be safe. “You don’t think about those things,” he said. “You see it everywhere else, and don’t think about it in your area.”

While Nesbitt’s home was a safe distance from the blaze in the end, others in his life had closer encounters.

“My son’s business is in Louisville, which was less than a mile from where the fire stopped,” he said. “They were evacuated.”

One thing that was repeated in Nesbitt’s telling of the event was the uncertainty of where the fire might spread, and fear of the devastation that could be caused.

“It’s just all houses,” said Nesbitt, describing the area through which the fire burned. “From Boulder east, it’s all just one small town after another, full of homes and subdivisions.”

According to Nesbitt, the fire couldn’t have started in much worse of a place.

“Part of the problem was [that] just to the west of where this fire started it is all open space — very dry,” said Nesbitt. “Just tinder-dry grass. It didn’t take much. Any spark was going to start it up.”

The winds, again mentioned by Nesbitt, were a huge factor in the spread of the blaze.

“They couldn’t even fight the fire,” he said. “They just were trying to get everybody out — there’s nothing they could do. They couldn’t really save any homes.”

While evacuation was not necessary for Nesbitt, the possibility was on his mind, as he says he began gathering a few things Thursday, just in case. “A lot of these people where it was burning had half and hour and they had to get out — some people didn’t even have that much time,” he said.

Stress was a prevailing emotion throughout the last 24 hours for Nesbitt; stress over his own situation, and that of others he knows.

“A former co-worker of mine has a home right in Superior, and I texted him last night and asked if there’s anything I can do,” said Nesbitt. “He said he didn’t know at that time — if his home was gone or not. I haven’t heard word, but his house was right in that area.”

This is not the first experience Nesbitt has had living near disaster.

“It’s similar in the feelings from the next day after the Rapid City flood of 1972. I was living in Rapid City, and the whole night was flooding and storms and you knew listening to the radio that there were people being washed away, and homes being washed away,” he said. “The next morning when you went out and saw the devastation — it’s like that with this fire — daylight came, and you saw the devastation.”

No fatalities have yet been reported from these fires.