'Out of control' wildfires spread
<p>Tracy Greenwood embraces her daughter, Mariah Greenwood, as they watch the High Park wildfire burn near their home west of Fort Collins, Colo., on Monday, June 11, 2012. The fire grew to more than 31 square miles within about a day after being reported. It has destroyed or damaged 18 structures and smoke has drifted as far away as central Nebraska, western Kansas and Texas. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)</p>
BELLVUE, Colo. (AP) - Massive wildfires in drought-parched Colorado and New Mexico tested the resources of state and federal crews Monday and underscored the need to replenish an aging U.S. aerial firefighting fleet needed to combat a year-round fire season.
Wyoming diverted personnel and aircraft from two fires there to help with a 64-square-mile wildfire in northern Colorado. Canada also lent two aerial bombers to fight the Colorado blaze following the recent crash of a U.S. tanker in Utah. And an elite federal firefighting crew arrived to try to begin containing a fire that destroyed at least 118 structures.
All told, about 600 firefighters will be battling the fire some 15 miles west of Fort Collins by today, said incident commander Bill Hahnenberg.
"We are a very high priority nationally. We can get all the resources we want and need," he said.
The U.S. Forest Service said late Monday it would add more aircraft to its aerial firefighting fleet, contracting one air tanker from Alaska and four from Canada. Two more air tankers were being activated in California.
The announcement came after Colorado's U.S. House delegation demanded that the agency deploy more resources to the fire, which was totally uncontained and has forced hundreds of people to abandon their homes.
The Larimer County sheriff's office confirmed Monday that one person died in the fire.
The family of Linda Steadman, 62, had reported her missing after the fire started Saturday, sheriff's officials said. Her home received two evacuation notices that appeared to go to her answering machine, and a firefighter who tried to get past a locked gate to her home to warn her was chased out by flames that he later saw engulf her home, Sheriff Justin Smith said.
In a letter to the Forest Service, Colorado's congressmen said the need for firefighting aircraft was "dire." Colorado U.S. Sen. Mark Udall urged President Barack Obama to sign legislation that would allow the Forest Service to contract at least seven large air tankers to add to its fleet of 13 - which includes the two on loan from Canada.
The temporary additions to the firefighting aircraft fleet will make 17 air tankers available to the forest service, which has deployed 10 air tankers, 62 helicopters and 4,000 personnel to more than 100 fires nationwide.
In New Mexico, firefighters used a break in the hot and windy weather and got new air and ground support to battle a fast-moving wildfire that charred tens of thousands of acres and forced hundreds of residents to leave their homes in the southern part of the state.