Colorado wildfire blamed for one death as California blaze expands

By Liya Cui and Rich McKay

(Reuters) -A fast-moving wildfire has killed at least one person in the Rocky Mountain foothills of Colorado, one of a handful of blazes burning across the state, while thousands of firefighters in California struggled to contain the largest fire in the country.

The individual killed in the Stone Canyon Fire, burning about 20 miles (32 km) north of Boulder, Colorado, was found on Wednesday in one of five homes destroyed near Rocky Mountain National Park, officials said.

“We did also today discover human remains in one of the residences,” Boulder County Sheriff Curtis Johnson told journalists. “So, I can confirm for you that we do have one fatality associated with the fire.”

Johnson did not provide details on the individual’s identity.

The Stone Canyon Fire, near Lyons, a community of about 2,000, has burned more than 1,500 acres (600 hectares) since Tuesday afternoon. It was 30% contained as of Thursday evening, according to Nathan Hallam, the fire incident commander on scene, who added that he hoped to see the fire begin to shrink significantly by Sunday or Monday.

Evacuation orders were lifted for all of Lyons on Thursday afternoon, along with some outlying areas to the south and west of the blaze.

Meanwhile, another fire is within about 500 yards (457 meters) of some homes in far southwest Denver. The Quarry Fire burned 420 acres by Thursday afternoon, according to local fire officials. Firefighters were focusing on keeping the fire on the south side of a road and away from those homes.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis called in the Colorado National Guard to assist with the recovery. Since Tuesday afternoon, dry conditions and high temperatures have enabled the fire to spread quickly through timberland.

The Stone Canyon Fire is one of multiple fires that have ripped through Colorado’s Front Range mountains this week, prompting further evacuations.

Across the country, more than 29,000 firefighters and support personnel are fighting 93 large wildfires, encompassing more than 2 million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

The national wildfire season has had an intense start, raising the risk of stretching fire-fighting resources too thin. The center has already requested help from firefighters in Australia and New Zealand, who will arrive starting Aug. 7 and deploy to Oregon and Washington.

Wildfire activity in California is 2,816% higher than at this time last year, with 29 times the amount of acreage burned, said the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, in an X post on Tuesday.

California’s Park Fire, the largest, has burned more than 600 square miles (1,550 square km) as of Thursday morning, an area bigger than the city of Los Angeles, state fire officials said. It ranks as the fifth largest fire in the state’s history and could soon become the fourth.

Nearly 6,000 firefighters are battling the blaze in a wilderness area in the state’s Central Valley, about 90 miles (145 km) north of Sacramento, the state capital. It has destroyed 437 structures and damaged 42, Cal Fire said.

One of those homes belonged to Mike Wittenberg, 41, of Forest Ranch, close to where the Park Fire started. He said his newly renovated five-bedroom house was destroyed soon after he fled with his fiancée Andrea and three children.

When they were given the evacuation orders last week, he said he hesitated but eventually the family departed.

“I honestly didn’t think the fire would take our home,” Wittenberg said on Thursday. “We lost our cars, bikes, motorcycle, my kids’ toys and clothes. We have virtually nothing. It’s hard to take in.”

The family is now sleeping on the floor of his father’s home in nearby Paradise, a town that was largely wiped off the map in 2018 by a wildfire that killed 85 people, the deadliest blaze in California’s history.

The man charged with starting the Park Fire, allegedly by pushing a flaming car down a Butte County gully last week, was formally charged with arson on Monday, but awaits additional charges, officials said.