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UPDATE: More than 32,000 Ordered to Flee Colo. Wildfire

By: The AP
Updated: Wed 7:13 AM, Jun 27, 2012

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- More than 32,000 people have been ordered to evacuate as a fast-moving wildfire spreads into the Colorado Springs city limits.

El Paso County sheriff's spokeswoman Jackie Kirby said Wednesday that at least six subdivisions are included in the evacuation orders, along with residents of the Air Force Academy. Kirby says a number of houses have burned, but no estimate is available.

Kirby says there have been no reports of injuries after the fire spread quickly Tuesday evening into the city. The Waldo Canyon started June 23 west of the city and now covers more than 10 square miles.

To the north in Boulder County, officials evacuated 26 households when a wildfire erupted Tuesday afternoon. In northern Colorado, the 136-square-mile High Park Fire has destroyed 257 homes and killed one woman.


COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- Air Force Academy officials are evacuating some homes on school grounds as heavy smoke billows from a wildfire north of Colorado Springs.

The part of the academy housing cadets wasn't immediately evacuated. A new class of cadets is scheduled to report on Thursday.

A fire official said earlier Tuesday that the blaze was less than 5 miles from the southwest corner of the academy's campus.

Meanwhile, authorities in central Utah found one woman dead Tuesday when they returned to an evacuated area. It marks the first casualty in a blaze that consumed at least two dozen homes and appears to be taking a turn for the worst.

Throughout the interior West, firefighters toiled in searing, record-setting 100 degree heat as they struggled to contain blazes in Colorado, Utah and other Rocky Mountain states.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


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86° F
Mostly Cloudy
Mon
85 72
Tue
82 70
Wed
79 63
Thu
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Wind: 21 mph headed S
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Visibility: 10.00
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