By Keith Coffman
DENVER, June 15 (Reuters) – Crews battling a deadly wildfire
that is the most destructive on record in Colorado have
contained almost half of the 15,000-acre (6,070-hectare) blaze
that has incinerated nearly 500 homes outside Colorado Springs,
authorities said on Saturday.
Cooler temperatures, calmer winds and a rainstorm that moved
over the burn area on Friday allowed fire managers to increase
the containment of the fire to 45 percent from 30 percent the
day before.
“Last night, there was no growth and no more structures
lost,” incident commander Rich Harvey of the U.S. Forest Service
told a news conference.
But the number of homes confirmed destroyed by the so-called
Black Forest Fire jumped to 473 overnight as assessment crews
combed through areas that have cooled, El Paso County Sheriff
Terry Maketa said.
Maketa said the bulk of the homes were lost in the first 24
hours of the blaze, and voiced optimism the threat from the fire
was diminishing.
“I think we’re getting the upper hand,” Maketa said, adding
that when he toured the area, it “looked like a nuclear bomb
went off.”
Fueled by tinder-dry vegetation and fanned by high winds,
the blaze erupted on Tuesday in a wooded area northeast of
Colorado Springs.
Flames roared out of control for two days, charring a
24-square-mile (62-square-km) swath through rolling hills on the
outskirts of Colorado’s second-largest city.
Two people were found dead inside the garage of a home that
was reduced to ashes when flames ripped through the area.
The sheriff said the cause of the fire was under
investigation, but he believed it was caused by humans, because
there were no lightning strikes in the area that could have
sparked the blaze.
At one point, some 38,000 people were under evacuation
orders. But authorities have lifted evacuation orders in some
areas as the threat of the fire spreading has eased.
Next week, some displaced residents will be allowed back
into neighborhoods that have been deemed safe, police said. The
sheriff’s office said unauthorized people found in restricted
areas would be criminally charged.
More than 1,000 local, state and federal firefighters are
attacking the fire from the ground and air, Harvey said, and
firefighting costs have exceeded $3.5 million.
(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and
Peter Cooney)
