Out-of-control Colorado wildfire threatens homes

By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) - Sparked by lightning and fanned by erratic winds, a wildfire in western Colorado has spread to within a half mile of a 400-home subdivision, forcing evacuations, fire officials said on Tuesday.

Residents of 30 houses in the path of the 350-acre (141 hectare) blaze near Glenwood Springs, about 155 miles west of Denver, have been ordered to leave and the remaining residents have been warned to prepare for evacuation, said Larry Helmerick of the Rocky Mountain Coordination Center.

"The fire is crowning and torching and making a run today," Helmerick said. "It is real active."

Helmerick said high temperatures, low humidity and gusting winds are hampering firefighting efforts.

About 200 firefighters are on scene, with air tankers and helicopters making fire retardant and water drops. The fire is about 15 percent contained.

A second, larger fire has blackened 1,000 acres (404 hectares) of federal land in a remote area about 50 miles (80 km) east of the Utah border, said Mel Lloyd, spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Seventy-five firefighters are battling that fire from the ground and air.

Lloyd said weather would dictate how much progress was made on Tuesday but conditions so far have not been favorable, Lloyd said. "The weather forecast calls for high winds and 100-degree temperatures," she said.

Dry lightning strikes from a storm that swept through tinder-dry western Colorado Sunday night ignited all the fires, Lloyd said.