Before (above) and after (below): The devastating Colorado wildfire can be seen in two overhead images in the Colorado Springs neighbourhood of Mountain Shadows
- 32,000 evacuated from Colorado Springs including Air Force Academy cadets as inferno spread
- About 300 homes reportedly destroyed in Waldo Canyon Fire, which has been named the No. 1 priority for emergency crews
- Obama to tour the disaster-stricken area on Friday to meet firefighters working around the clock
The photos revealed the Mountain Shadows area of Colorado Springs, where dozens of homes can be seen decimated by the fast-moving fire.
The raging wildfire that has encroached on the state's second-largest city and threatened the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Mayor Steve Bach said a more accurate account will be available later in the day of the damage from a blaze that has burned out of control for much of the week and forced more than 30,000 evacuees to frantically pack up belongings and flee.
© EPAHard day's night: A Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane helicopter drops slurry on a hot spot at the Waldo Canyon Fire
The 23-year-old told the Denver Post: 'The fire was literally coming down the hill as all of us were running to grab things out of the house and get out of there.'
© APWhole streets of house have been razed to the ground by the fire in the Colorado Springs neighbourhood of Mountain Shadows
Their home was one of about 300 that are believed to have been destroyed in the Waldo Canyon blaze, the Post reported.
Ted Stefani told the Post that he found out his five-bedroom home was gone when he saw it consumed by flames in a photo on the front page of the newspaper.
Quenching: A Modular Airborne Firefighting System-equipped C-130 drops fire retardant on a section of the Waldo Canyon fire near Colorado Springs. As news that a C-130 has crashed in another raging fire in South Dakota, the US military has grounded its fleet of fire tankers just when they are needed most.
Watching it burn: Distraught residents stand helplessly as high winds push the Waldo Canyon Fire into the Garden of the Gods and Mountain Shadows neighborhoods in Colorado Springs
El Paso County sheriff's Lt Jeff Kramer said that U.S. Forest Service agents are waiting for firefighting commanders to tell them when it's safe to enter the burned area.
The wildfire was one of many burning across the parched West, blazes that have destroyed structures and prompted evacuations in Montana and Utah and forced the closure of a portion of Zion National Park.
© ReutersSome of the hundreds of totally destroyed homes are seen in the aftermath of the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs
Seen from space: The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image on June 26; Smoke trails mark the locations of actively burning fires
Winds were forecast to be 10 to 15 mph out of the west.
'It's not windy yet this morning. That's always a good sign,' fire information officer Rob Dyerberg said Thursday.
Devastation: Winds have pushed the Waldo Canyon fire into the foothills neighborhoods west of Colorado Springs, Colorado
An AP aerial photo taken Wednesday of one neighborhood showed hundreds of heavily damaged or destroyed homes.
© APDestruction: A residential area party destroyed by the Colorado wildfires is seen from this aerial photo
Fleeing: Tayor Salamon, 11, holds on to his dog as they pile in the back seat and his family rushes to leave their home in Colorado Springs
Trying to learn about damage, the Gigandets drove to near their west Colorado Springs neighborhood to talk to police officers and see the area.
Watching as Rome burns: A man outside of Colorado Springs observes the blanket of smoke billowing out from Colorado Springs
'We only packed clothes for four days,' Florine Gigandet, 83, a retired photo printer, said. 'I really thought that we'd be gone for only a day.'
The displaced residents took stock of what they left behind. Some sat in coffee shops, others stood on bluffs to keep an eye on their neighborhoods, and others met with insurance company representatives.
© APThis aerial photo shows the destructive path of the Waldo Canyon fire in the Mountain Shadows subdivision area of Colorado Springs
The Gigandets, avid golfers, left their clubs behind. 'We should be out golfing,' said Ed Gigandet, 81, a retired mining machinery sales analyst.
Neighbourhood ravaged: Smoke rises over the Mountain Shadows area of Colorado Springs, Colorado, after the Waldo Canyon fire blazed through the area
Gone with the wind: High winds push the Waldo Canyon Fire into the Garden of the Gods and Mountain Shadows neighborhoods in Colorado Springs, Colorado; three men capture the destruction with cameras and mobile phones
The president phoned Gov John Hickenlooper yesterday to pledge his support and resources for the firefight, and said that both that his thoughts and prayers are with responders and families impacted by the fires, according to a statement from the White House.
Neighborhood inferno: The Waldo Canyon Fire engulfs an entire neighborhood in the foothills of Colorado Springs as temperatures of more than 100 degrees only served to fuel the flames
Gov Hickenlooper said he expected the president might sign a disaster declaration that would allow for more federal aid.
The fire blackened up to 50 acres along the southwest boundary of the Air Force Academy campus, said Anne Rys-Sikora, a spokeswoman for the firefighters. No injuries or damage to structures - including the iconic Cadet Chapel - were reported.
Aerial firefight: A helicopter drops water over Queens Canyon, near Colorado Springs, Colorado, while fighting the Waldo Canyon fire
© APUp in flames: An entire neighborhood burns near the foothills of Colorado Springs, Colo. on Tuesday, June 26
Rys-Sikora said the academy was not getting a disproportionate share of equipment and firefighters.
'It's not lopsided,' she said.
Late Wednesday night, Air Force Academy officials announced they were relocating about 550 cadets off academy grounds.
© APRun for your life: Smoke and ash billowed down the hill from the Waldo Canyon wildfire causing 32,000 residents to be evacuated
Courage under fire: Firefighters struggle to get close to the blaze
The cadet area isn't immediately threatened, and an incoming class of more than 1,000 is still scheduled to arrive Thursday.
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.
Indeed, authorities were too busy Wednesday struggling to save homes in near-zero visibility to count how many had been destroyed in what is the latest test for a drought-parched and tinder-dry state.
At one point, a team assessing the damage had to leave charred neighborhoods because of smoke and fire danger.
In addition to the some 30,000 evacuees, about 3,000 more people were evacuated to the west of the fire, Teller County authorities said Wednesday, and Teller County courts were closed through Thursday.
The Red Cross was accommodating victims at its shelters, with space enough for perhaps 2,500 people. Most evacuees were staying with family and friends.
Crews also were battling a deadly and destructive wildfire in northern Colorado and another that flared Tuesday night near Boulder.
Colorado wasn't the only state affected by fire, as several burned throughout the parched West.
Why do I cry when reading the above article? They are strangers to me. But I do cry. And I worry and pray for the boy (excuse me, at 11 he is a young man) with his dog in the above articles photo. And I pray for them all. But I say pray when it is not praying really, it is more of a pain that goes out to those hurting.
In another article on Sott I just read about evacuees going home to find their homes burglarized
I pray others prey.