Massive Wildfire Still Burning

The massive wildfire in northern Colorado that was probably sparked by lightning on Saturday was still raging Tuesday.

The fast-moving blaze was burning through about half-a-mile of forest per hour and threatening hundreds of homes. It burned dozens of structures Monday.

It's being blamed for one death.

Four hundred firefighters have been battling the blaze from the air and on the ground; that number will soon swell to 600.

While the steep, mountainous terrain appears green, a dry winter and spring have left the moisture level in the trees down to 60 percent. At this time of year, it's usually at 90 percent. The result: Flames are leaping easily from treetop to treetop.

"So, even though that fuel looks green, normally it wouldn't burn at this time of year," says Fire Management Officer Bill Hahnenberg. "It's burning very well, and that's why we're getting this aggressive and active fire behavior that we are."

At least 118 structures have burned.

Wildfires Spread Out West

Firefighters in Colorado and New Mexico are battling wind-fueled wildfires that are moving fast through parched forests, forcing scores of evacuations and destroying or damaging numerous structures.

A blaze in northern Colorado was first reported Saturday morning and had grown to about 8,000 acres by mid-evening, while a fire in southern New Mexico was small for a few days until it began growing Friday, reaching about 10,000 acres.

Both fires have damaged property and forced numerous evacuations, but officials haven't yet released specific figures on the numbers who fled.

The wildfire in the mountainous Paradise Park area, about 20 miles northwest of Fort Collins, prompted several dozen evacuation orders.

Larimer County Sheriff's Office spokesman John Schulz said the fire expanded rapidly during the late afternoon and evening and by Saturday night, residents living along several roads in the region had been ordered to evacuate and many more were warned that they might have to flee. An evacuation center has been set up at a Laporte middle school.

Officials didn't specify how many residents had evacuated but said they had sent out 800 emergency notifications urging people to be prepared to evacuate if necessary.

Wind was also playing a major role in the expansion of a lightning-sparked blaze in New Mexico's Lincoln National Forest that jumped its containment lines and raced through thick conifer forests. Fire managers said 20 structures were damaged or destroyed.

Spanning only a few acres on Wednesday, the Little Bear fire began to grow Friday and by Saturday afternoon about 10,000 acres had been charred northwest of the mountain community of Ruidoso.

Arizona Fires Continue to Burn

More than 1,300 firefighters from across the nation worked to try to protect several small mountain communities and stop the stubborn wildfire, burning about 250 miles northeast of Phoenix.

"They are making progress halting the advance of the fire," Deryl Jevons, a fire information spokesman, told Reuters. "It's not like we've shut it down. But we've had a better time of it in the last few days."

Weather conditions had been helping firefighting efforts, but there was fear on Sunday that wind speeds would increase and lightning might strike the area, Jevons said.

The so-called Wallow Fire, which broke out a week ago, is now the third-largest in Arizona history. It was at zero percent containment.

Several hundred residents in the small community of Alpine and tiny Nutrioso were forced to flee their homes late on Thursday, and American Red Cross officials said as many as seven residences were destroyed.

There has been no estimate for when these residents would be able to return home.

Wildfires Burn in Texas

So far,about 120,000 acres have burned in West Texas as the wind eased and crews brought all of the fires under control.

The Texas Forest Service responded to fires that blackened about 120,000 acres, but the number could go higher when volunteers file their reports on other blazes they fought.

There have been no fatalities, said Lewis Kearney, a spokesman for the forest service's Texas State Lone Star Incident Management Team. However, the high winds made it difficult for firefighters to use aircraft to contain the blazes.