Climate crisis has cost Colorado billions – now it wants oil firms to pick up the bill

ExxonMobil and Suncor face lawsuits in the western state but big oil's apologists say the US consumer is to blame for emissions

More than a decade after the Fourmile Canyon blaze drove even the firefighters out of Gold Hill, blackened hillsides and scorched trees attest to the Colorado mountain town's close shave with destruction.

Because of the wind and the dryness, it took off," said Chris Finn, who volunteers as the town's fire chief when he's not running the local inn. That day in 2010, I felt that my business and my house might not be here any more."