By JESSE BEDAYN and MATTHEW BROWN
Associated Press

LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) — A wildfire in Colorado’s densely populated Front Range region has burned dozens of homes and outbuildings, while a second blaze spread within a quarter-mile of evacuated homes near Denver on Thursday.

Authorities said they were hopeful they could save hundreds of threatened homes, but firefighters working in tree-covered foothills at the eastern end of the Rocky Mountains faced stifling temperatures and some had to stop work because of heat exhaustion.

The struggle to contain the flames came after authorities said Wednesday that one person had died in a wildfire west of Lyons, Colorado. The person’s remains were found inside one of five homes that burned.

New large fires were reported in Idaho, southeastern Montana and northern Texas.

About two dozen homes and outbuildings were damaged or destroyed in a wildfire near Loveland, Colorado, authorities said after an initial survey of the burned area.

Meanwhile, the Quarry Fire southwest of the Denver suburb of Littleton engulfed several large subdivisions. Neighborhoods with nearly 600 homes were ordered evacuated after the blaze, of unknown origin, spread rapidly Tuesday afternoon and overnight, when relatively few firefighters were on the scene.

On Thursday afternoon, firefighting planes were flying back and forth between the blaze and a nearby water reservoir. Planes hovered overhead to collect water and helicopters hovering above pumped water into their tanks before returning to the fire to dump their loads.

Jim and Meg Lutes watched from a vantage point near their home northeast of the fire as smoke rose from the ridges. Their community west of Littleton had no evacuation orders, but the couple had been ready to start packing a day earlier when flames could be seen engulfing the mountains.

“You can get to that hill pretty quickly if the wind shifts,” said Jim Lutes, 64, pointing to a nearby ridge.

Five firefighters were injured Wednesday, including four who suffered heat exhaustion, said Mark Techmeyer, a spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

The fire was in steep terrain that made access difficult, but it had been contained to about 1.4 square kilometers and no homes were yet destroyed, officials said. Officials said it remained a significant hazard, with high temperatures and low humidity adding to the danger.

“The fire has proven to be one of the most difficult firefights I have ever seen,” Techmeyer said at a new conference Thursday as helicopters flew overhead.

It was flanked by hillsides where firefighters were working to prevent the blaze from spreading across a road that separates the site from populated areas.

“If we lose that battle, the fire will come this way,” Techmeyer said, pointing toward dense neighborhoods and Littleton.

The number of firefighters has doubled since the previous day, from 75 to 155, most of them volunteers. As of Thursday afternoon, no structures had been lost, but authorities expect the battle to be long.

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin, which operates a large facility just outside the evacuation zone, closed it as a precaution.

A few miles north, near Lyons, authorities have lifted some evacuation orders and reported progress on the Stone Canyon Fire, which has killed one person and destroyed five homes. The cause is under investigation.

The blaze sparked by a fire in a park northeast of Chico, California, continued to grow and as of Thursday morning covered about 610 square miles (1,590 square kilometers), more than 25 times the size of Manhattan Island in New York.

Losses also rose. The latest updates counted 437 structures destroyed and 42 damaged, according to Cal Fire. The blaze was 18% contained.

Authorities said they will face critical weather conditions in the coming days, with triple-digit temperatures, thunderstorms and erratic winds possible. Nearly 6,000 personnel were helping to battle the Park Fire as additional fire crews arrived from Utah and Texas.

Scientists say extreme wildfires are becoming more common and destructive in the western United States and other parts of the world as climate change warms the planet and droughts become more severe.

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

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