The Waldo Canyon Fire was declared the worst in Colorado state history on Saturday, and its flames are still raging out of control. So far, the wildfire has destroyed 347 homes, killed at least two people, and burned an estimated 18,500 acres of land.

Although exact accounting figures may be a year away, the insurance industry is expecting payments for the Waldo Canyon blaze to be the most ever for a Colorado wildfire —possibly up into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

“We do not yet have an estimate,” said Carole Walker of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association. “The Waldo Canyon Fire is certainly the most destructive wildfire in the state’s history, in the sheer number of homes and the fact that most of them are in a suburban area.”

The blaze started June 23, and is roughly 70 percent contained. It forced 32,000 residents to evacuate their homes, and has cost over $11 million to suppress so far. The U.S. Forest Service believes it could be mid-July before the fire is fully extinguished.

Susan Solich lost her home in the fire. “I’ve seen pictures, but it didn’t really impact me the way it did, turning into my driveway,” she said. “My home was gone; it was imploded into the ground. … It’s kind of like the twilight zone.”

The Waldo Canyon Fire takes its place among 27,176 fires that have destroyed almost 1.9 million acres of American land so far this year.

The raging wildfires the U.S. has experienced this year, and over the last decade, are warnings of far greater disasters that the nation and the world will soon experience. The full power of nature’s forces is yet to be fully unleashed (see Revelation 6:5-8 and Revelation 8:4-12). For more information related to this subject, read our booklet Why ‘Natural’ Disasters?