Fire crews outside Colorado Springs, Colo., expected more weather trouble on Wednesday in what the local fire chief called a "monster event" that doubled in size overnight and has forced 32,000 people to flee.
Heavy smoke made for unhealthy air in and around the city. After jumping fire lines Tuesday, the towering blaze has now burned 24 square miles and an undetermined number of homes.
While crews should get a break from the heat, a forecast for thunderstorms could mean unpredictable winds.
"We expect further trouble from the weather today," incident commander Rich Harvey said at a press briefing. "We do expect all of our lines to be challenged today."
Colorado Springs Fire Chief Rich Brown called the Waldo Canyon Fire a "monster event" that is "not even remotely close to being contained." The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Tuesday night, the community of Mountain Shadows, northwest of Colorado Springs, appeared to be enveloped in an orange glow.
People were "freaking out" as they fled Tuesday night, local resident Kathleen Tillmantold the Denver Post. "You are driving through smoke. It is completely pitch black, and there is tons of ash dropping on the road."
"This is a fire of epic proportions," Brown said at a briefing Tuesday night.
"It was like looking at the worst movie set you could imagine," Gov. John Hickenlooper added after flying over the fire. "It's almost surreal. You look at that, and it's like nothing I've seen before."
Among the evacuees were cadets and staff living in one section of the sprawling U.S. Air Force Academy. Flames crested a ridge high above the campus on Tuesday, forcuing more than 2,100 residents there to flee.
A new class of 1,045 cadets was to have reported to campus on Thursday but will instead check in at another facility. The academy said the entire campus would be closed Wednesday.
Brown insisted that "many, many homes" were saved by firefighters.
Hickenlooper told anxious residents that "we have all the support of the U.S. government. We have all the support of the state of Colorado. And we want everybody here to know that."
He emphasized that Colorado was open to tourism, saying various fires had affected just a half-percent of all public lands and perhaps 400 of 10,000 campground sites.
Colorado is battling 12 large fires, its worst fire season in history, and other states across the West are being taxed as well.
To the north in Boulder County, 26 homes were evacuated Tuesday when lightning sparked a wildfire. No structures were immediately threatened, but the National Center for Atmospheric Research closed as a precaution.
The state's largest blaze is the 136-square-mile High Park Fire, which has destroyed 257 homes and killed one woman. That fire was triggered by lightning on June 9 and is nearly contained.
Most of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana have seen red flag warnings in recent days, meaning extreme fire danger.
The West is seeing "a super-heated spike on top of a decades-long warming trend," Derek Arndt, head of climate monitoring at the National Climatic Data Center, told the Associated Press.
Although the fire season got off to an early start in the West, the number of fires and acreage burned nationwide is still below the 10-year average for this time of year.
Elsewhere in the West:
- In Utah, a woman was found dead Tuesday in a blaze that consumed at least two dozen homes. Her body was found during a damage assessment of the 60-square-mile Wood Hollow Fire near Indianola. The fire was 15 percent contained and evacuations were issued in Fairview, a town of about 1,100 residents.
- In New Mexico, a fire that burned nearly 70 square miles west of Ruidoso was 90 percent contained, with many residents allowed to return home.
- In Montana, a wildfire just 2 miles north of Helena destroyed four homes and forced people out of 200 homes. Gov. Brian Schweitzer issued a state of emergency for four counties.
- In Wyoming, a wildfire in the Bridger-Teton National Forest grew from about 300 acres to 2,000 acres Tuesday, marking the first major wildfire of the season there.
Teresa Jiles looks over the debris that was her home in the Glacier View residential area near Livermore, Colo., on Monday, July 2. The last evacuees from the High Park Fire were allowed to return home as crews fully contained the 136-square-mile blaze that killed one resident and destroyed 259 houses.
People cheer and greet firefighters returning to the evacuation shelter at Holmes Middle School in Colorado Springs, Colo., on July 2, after crews spent the day battling the Waldo Canyon Fire.
These signs left by residents in the Mountain Shadows community of Colorado Springs, Colorado, were visible on July 2. Nearly 350 homes were destroyed by the Waldo Canyon fire
Smoke from the Waldo Canyon Fire blankets a hill on July 2 as a deer walks through a neighborhood thathad been evacuated.
Neighbors who had evacuated embrace after returning to their homes in Colorado Springs, Colo., on July 1. Residents began returning to charred areas after the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history forced tens of thousands of people from their homes and left the landscape a blackened wasteland.
A utilities worker walks past the skeleton of a vehicle while searching for gas leaks in the Mountain Shadows subdivision in Colorado Springs, Colo., on July 2.
Policemen wait for residents who were temporarily allowed to visit their homes in the Mountain Shadows neighborhood on July 1.
The Church at the Ranch holds its services on July 1 at the Penrose Norris Event Center in Colorado Springs. It would normally hold services at Flying W Ranch, but their place of worship burned down in the Waldo Canyon Fire.
Members of Bighorn 209, a hand crew from the Crow Agency in Montana, check for hot spots on the Waldo Canyon Fire on June 29.
Homes destroyed by the Waldo Canyon Fire are seen from the air on June 30 in Colorado Springs.
Smoke billows at sunrise from part of the Waldo Canyon fire on June 30 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
President Barack Obama talks to firefighters while touring the Mountain Shadows neighborhood in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Friday, June 29. Obama earlier declared a major disaster there and offered more assistance for the fire in which 347 homes have been destroyed
-
A firefighter stands in rubble of the Mountain Shadows neighborhood on June 29.Anita Jones, 92, is welcomed back to her assisted living home in Colorado Springs on June 29 after she and others had to evacuate three days earlier.Firefighters get massages after coming off the fire line west of Colorado Springs on June 29.Part of the scarred landscape left by the Waldo Canyon Fire outside Colorado Springs, Colo., is seen on June 28. Pikes Peak is in the background. Cooler temperatures and lighter winds helped firefighters but the blaze had already destroyed hundreds of homes and forced 35,000 people to flee.A cul-de-sac of totally destroyed homes along with one left intact is seen in a Colorado Springs subdivision on June 28.This home was among the hundreds lost in the Waldo Canyon Fire.Smoke from the Waldo Canyon Fire rises near the U.S. Air Force Academy's Cadet Chapel as cadets head for a briefing on evacuation procedures on June 27. The Academy evacuated more than 600 families and 110 dormitory residents from the base.Thick smoke rises from fires in the southernmost extremity of the Wyoming Range, as seen from the International Space Station on June 27.Helicopters and even C-130s have bombarded the Waldo Canyon Fire with water and retardant.Evacuees of the Waldo Canyon Fire are assisted by the Red Cross at the Cheyenne Mountain High School evacuation center on June 27.Evacuees take shelter at Cheyenne Mountain High School on June 27.An aerial view on June 27 shows homes destroyed by the Waldo Canyon Fire.Kent Tinsley and his mother Miriam Tinsley unsuccessfully try to talk emergency personnel into letting them go to their home to get medical supplies for Miriam's husband, Herbert Tinsley, in Colorado Springs on June 27.The Waldo Canyon Fire moved near these homes on June 26.A plume of smoke rises from the Waldo Canyon Fire on June 26.Part the Waldo Canyon Fire moves into a subdivision north of Colorado Springs on June 26.
A man tries to evacuate a horse in Fairview, Utah, as the Wood Hollow Fire approached the town on June 26. A woman's body was found in the ashes of a house charred by the fast-moving fire. The blaze had already burned an estimated 30 homes and killed 75 sheep between the rural communities of Fountain Green and Indianola.
Smoke from the Wood Hollow Fire north of Fairview, Utah, is seen from Highway 89 on June 26. More than 500 structures have been threatened, forcing up to 1,500 people from homes.
Homes are destroyed by the Waldo Canyon Fire in the Mountain Shadows area northwest of Colorado Springs, on June 26.
Tammy Lance of Payson, Utah, swaddles a kitten after finding the litter alive under a burned-out truck near Mount Pleasant on June 25. The area was devastated by a wildfire that started on June 23.
A stream of melted aluminum from a burned-out car is visible on June 25 near Mount Pleasant, Utah. A wildfire destroyed at least two dozen homes in the area and threatened 300 more.
A wildfire burns just two miles from Helena, Mont. on June 25. Residents of more than 200 homes were forced to flee, and at least four homes were destroyed.
Volunteers serve lunch at the evacuation shelter at Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs on June 25.
People watch from Mesa Road as the wildfire continues to burn outside Colorado Springs on June 24.
Fire approaches homes near Saratoga Springs, Utah, on June 22. Several thousand homes were evacuated after high winds kicked up a fire caused by people firing guns for target practice.
Little was left of this property on June 20 after the High Park Fire west of Fort Collins, Colo., tore through.
One of the partially destroyed homes is still smoldering among those totally destroyed in the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs, Colorado on Thursday, Cooler temperatures and lighter winds helped firefighters in the battle against the fire, which has destroyed hundreds of homes and forced more than 35,000 people to flee.
Four houses remain while every other house was destroyed on their street in the aftermath of the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado Springs.
This aerial photo shows the destructive path of the Waldo Canyon fire in the Mountain Shadows subdivision area of Colorado Springs, Colo., on Thursday.
Part of the scarred landscape left by the Waldo Canyon Fire outside Colorado Springs, Colo., is seen on Thursday, June 28. Pikes Peak is in the background. Cooler temperatures and lighter winds helped firefighters but the blaze had already destroyed hundreds of homes and forced 35,000 people to flee. (Rick Wilking / Reuters)
A cul-de-sac of totally destroyed homes along with one left intact is seen in a Colorado Springs subdivision on June 28. (Rick Wilking / Reuters)
This home was among the hundreds lost in the Waldo Canyon Fire. (Rick Wilking / Reuters)
Helicopters and even C-130s have bombarded the Waldo Canyon Fire with water and retardant. (Bryan Oller / AP)
Evacuees of the Waldo Canyon Fire are assisted by the Red Cross at the Cheyenne Mountain High School evacuation center on June 27. (Bryan Oller / AP)
Evacuees take shelter at Cheyenne Mountain High School on June 27. (Chris Schneider / Getty Images)
An aerial view on June 27 shows homes destroyed by the Waldo Canyon Fire.(John Wark / Reuters)
The Waldo Canyon Fire moved near these homes on June 26.
A plume of smoke rises from the Waldo Canyon Fire on June 26. (John Wark / Reuters)
Part the Waldo Canyon Fire moves into a subdivision north of Colorado Springs on June 26. (Gaylon Wampler / AP)
Smoke from the Wood Hollow Fire north of Fairview, Utah, is seen from Highway 89 on June 26. More than 500 structures have been threatened, forcing up to 1,500 people from homes. (George Frey / Reuters)
A helicopter drops water above the High Park Fire, about 15 miles west of Fort Collins, Colo., on June 18.
Forest burned by the Whitewater-Baldy Fire is seen on June 15 inside the Gila National Forest in New Mexico. The fire was the largest in the state's history.
A fire crew huddles at the Little Bear Fire in the Lincoln National Forest near Ruidoso, New Mexico, on June 13. Some 2,500 people were forced to evacuate their homes.
Part of the High Park Fire flares up in the Roosevelt National Forest west of Fort. Collins on June 12.
Tracy Greenwood embraces her daughter, Mariah, as they watch the High Park Fire burn near their home west of Fort Collins on June 11.
People watch the High Park Fire near Fort Collins on June 11.
Smoke fills the air over a barn, turning the sky orange, as the High Park Fire burns near Laporte, Colo., on June 10.
Woodland Heights WildFire: Colorado
HIGH PEAK WILDFIRE
Close Up Footage Of The High Park Fires In Colorado
Colorado Springs Fire Chief Rich Brown described the blaze as "a fire of epic proportions," as tens of thousands of Colorado residents and tourists have been evacuated ahead of the growing, potentially disastrous Waldo Canyon fire. This fire joins several others across the state, including the High Park fire, which has consumed nearly 90,000 acres since June 9. While no reports of deaths or injuries have surfaced, hundreds of homes have been destroyed, with many more threatened. Fire crews are doing their best to contain the fires and save what homes they can, as authorities urged residents to flee affected areas
댓글 없음:
댓글 쓰기