CALMER winds helped firefighters slow the spread of a 100-hectare wildfire that forced 2 400 people to flee their homes in the pine-covered foothills west of Denver.
The blaze had come within 400 metres of at least one house and within three kilometres of subdivisions in the area. Officials estimated the fire was only 10% contained.
The Jefferson County sheriff’s office evacuated everyone within three kilometres of the fire on Sunday. The blaze is about 40 kilometres from Denver.
Steve Nemeth and his wife, whose home is about 1,6 kilometres from the fire, grabbed pictures, clothes and their dog and cat when the evacuation order came. On Monday, they waited at a shelter.
”There’s a lot of sentimental stuff we can’t replace. We got the family together. That’s what counts,” he said. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
Also on Monday, grass fires outside Colorado Springs burned more than 2 400 hectares and caused the Colorado Springs Airport to adjust flight patterns to avoid thick plumes of smoke.
The fires also closed roads, threatened structures and forced the evacuation of some farm animals. El Paso County representative Lt. Melissa Hartman said the blaze was contained in about three hours.
After a dry winter, more than 400 wildfires have burned about 6 240 hectares in Colorado this year, according to the Rocky Mountain Area Coordinating Centre of the National Interagency Fire Centre.
In New Mexico, meanwhile, a fast-moving wildfire in the Santa Fe National Forest burned up to 280 hectares within several hours on Monday. Residents in the Dalton and Pecos canyons were asked to leave, fire information officer Claudia Standish said. Several campgrounds and about 400 homes are in the area, state police said.
Erratic wind fanned the flames, sending thick billowing clouds of grey smoke into the sky about 24 kilometres east of Santa Fe. Fire information officer Christa Orozco said the blaze was caused by humans, but the exact cause was not known.
In another New Mexico blaze, a 6 160-hectare wildfire near Mayhill that has destroyed 13 homes and 27 garages or other buildings was 75% contained on Monday night, officials said.
It was started accidentally last week by a man who later committed suicide. ? Sapa-AP