STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Colorado wildfires have forced thousands of people to evacuate and others to worry about their homes. Colorado Public Radio's Sam Brasch has the latest on this. Sam, good morning.
SAM BRASCH, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: What's the situation?
BRASCH: So we have about half a dozen major fires burning statewide. A couple of them we're watching really closely. One is the Aspen Acres fire. It's a really destructive blaze outside the city of Pueblo. And then another smaller one high in the mountains has caused some new evacuations yesterday.
INSKEEP: OK. Let's start with the big fire, the one I think you called the Aspen Acres fire. How big is big?
BRASCH: Right. The last briefing we got has it close to 90,000 acres. That would make it the seventh largest fire in Colorado history. It only started a week ago, and on that day it started, we saw wind gusts close to 100 miles per hour that caused the fire to make this terrifying run down the mountains towards Pueblo. Several small towns have been fully evacuated. Firefighters have contained 14% of the fire's perimeter, but it's still growing in other places. We saw that last night, and authorities have been expanding the evacuation area to try to stay ahead of the fire.
INSKEEP: Wow. When you talk about 90,000 acres, I don't even want to do the math. That's many, many square miles.
BRASCH: It is.
INSKEEP: That's a lot of people potentially affected. What are you hearing from people?
BRASCH: People were really shocked by how fast this fire spread, and many don't know if their homes or whole neighborhoods are still standing. We know several thousand people have been evacuated and the community in Southern Colorado has really pulled together to support the evacuees. One example was a quick Fourth of July festival outside an evacuation center in Pueblo. Malinda Bryan (ph) from Florence volunteered to bake some sweets and try to give kids just a sense of normalcy.
MALINDA BRYAN: If I was displaced, I would hope someone would think of me and would want to bring out cake, cookies or whatever they could.
INSKEEP: You know, honestly, food makes everything a little bit better, so good for her. But you mentioned there's a second fire, a smaller one. What's happening there?
BRASCH: Yeah. This is the Willow fire burning right next to Leadville, a historic silver-mining community...
INSKEEP: Sure.
BRASCH: ...With about 2,600 people. Emergency managers there haven't had to evacuate the entire community yet, but that's a real possibility, especially if wind conditions shift.
INSKEEP: Any rain in the forecast?
BRASCH: We do have some rain in the forecast, but thunderstorms cut both ways. Rain is great, but also storms can feed fires with erratic winds. Obviously, lightning can start more fires. There's some early signs we could get some monsoon moisture in mid-July and that'd be critical because with so little snow last winter, any dry stretch just sets the stage for more fires and resources are already thin.
INSKEEP: Sam, before I let you go, I want to ask you about three wildland firefighters who died on duty a week ago. How are they being remembered?
BRASCH: Yeah. These firefighters died June 27, fighting another fire near the Utah border. All three of them worked for federal firefighting agencies. It included two women, 27-year-old Sydney Watson from Warrior, Alabama, 38-year-old Emily Barker from Clinton Township, Michigan, and one man, 27-year-old Nick Hutcherson from Glendale, Arizona. They died in a burnover, where a sudden change in conditions closes off any escape routes, and they were remembered in a service in Grand Junction near the blaze they were fighting. Luckily, that fire is now completely - or nearly completely contained.
INSKEEP: Sam Brasch of Colorado Public Radio. Thanks so much.
BRASCH: Thank you.
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