Wildfire victims crowd shelters as battle continues

Associated Press

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.

Fire crews fought to save the U.S. Air Force Academy, and residents begged for information on the fate of their homes Wednesday after a night of terror sent thousands of people fleeing a raging Colorado Springs wildfire.

More than 30,000 have been displaced by the fire, including thousands who frantically packed up belongings Tuesday night after it barreled into neighborhoods in the foothills west and north of Colorado’s second-largest city. With flames looming overhead, they clogged roads shrouded in smoke and flying embers, their fear punctuated by explosions of bright orange flame that signaled yet another house had been claimed.

Constantly shifting winds challenged firefighters trying to contain the 24-square-mile Waldo Canyon blaze and extinguish hot spots inside the city’s western suburbs. The National Weather Service reported 60 mph winds and lightning above the fire Wednesday afternoon.

Some 3,000 more people were evacuated to the west of the fire, Teller County authorities said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the White House said President Barack Obama will tour fire-stricken areas of Colorado on Friday and thank firefighters battling some of the worst fires to hit the American West in decades. City Police Chief Richard Carey insisted that Obama’s visit to Colorado, considered a key battleground state in the presidential election, would not tax Carey’s already-strained police force. Gov. John Hickenlooper said he expected the president might sign a disaster declaration that would allow for more federal aid.

The full scope of the fire remained unknown. So intense were the flames and so thick the smoke that rescue workers weren’t able to tell residents which structures were destroyed and which ones were still standing.