Haggard and teary-eyed firefighters waited for the bodies to arrive on Sunday morning at Grand Junction Regional Airport in southwestern Colorado. They placed black stripes across their badges, symbolizing the loss of three firefighters from the blazes raging on the Utah-Colorado border.
At around 9:30 a.m., a medevac helicopter landed in a stiff wind, and the three bodies, draped in flags, were loaded into two vehicles from the coroner’s office. Some of the firefighters who had come in on the helicopter with the bodies got into the trucks and started to drive.
The firefighters who died were helping to fight the Knowles and Gore wildfires, the U.S. Wildland Fire Service said in a statement. Several agencies have deployed firefighters to western Colorado, where those fires merged with the Snyder fire and have devoured nearly 30,000 acres.
The National Weather Service has designated the area as a particularly dangerous situation, where strong winds, low humidity and dry fuels can trigger extreme fire behavior. “Rapid fire growth is likely,” the agency said in a statement.
Fire evacuation orders have been issued for parts of Colorado, and red flag warnings remain in effect across the Southwest. Winds could reach up to 40 miles per hour, and humidity is expected to remain low, according to forecasters.
Wildfires over the past week have charred the Southwest, where warm winters, a meager snowpack and high winds have turned the arid landscape into fuel. Fires have reached into Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada.
In Colorado, flames suddenly overwhelmed the firefighters, who tried to take shelter amid the heat and smoke, the Department of Interior said in a statement. In addition to the three who died, two others suffered burn injuries from the fast-moving blaze.
After the bodies arrived in Grand Junction, a half-mile procession of fire, rescue and law enforcement vehicles followed them slowly down Interstate 70.
Residents of Grand Junction were just learning the news of the deaths after they had watched towering, orange-tinted clouds of smoke rise to the west the night before. A few groups of people stood on overpasses watching the long line of flashing lights pass by. One mother hugged a young boy into her side.
The wind whipped the trees throughout the morning in a reminder that heavy wind gusts were expected to increase dangerous fire behavior again later on Sunday.
Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado declared a disaster late Saturday in response to the out-of-control fires in the western part of that state. The move centralizes the response and activates the state’s National Guard.
In Utah, 12 large wildfires raged as of Sunday afternoon, blackening more than 214,000 acres. The largest was the Cottonwood fire, which started near the city of Beaver, in the southwestern part of the state.
That blaze has grown to at least 93,000 acres in a week, with none of it contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah called Cottonwood the “most destructive fire in the state’s history” in terms of property loss. No injuries or deaths have been reported.
Firefighters on the ground and in the air had to pull out on Friday and scout for safer ways to attack, the Forest Service said.
On Saturday, crews removed fuel from portions of the Cottonwood fire’s path, using rakes, shovels and axes to hack away at brush and vegetation. But authorities were not sure whether their defenses would hold.
“We have been making progress all across the landscape. We have line in place around the majority of it, but a lot of the line hasn’t been tested,” said Alyssa Mason, a spokeswoman for Great Basin Team 5, the federal group leading the response.
Fires can start unintentionally, Ms. Mason said on Saturday. A chain dragging behind a truck can set off sparks and ignite roadside brush.
State authorities have taken precautions to limit the threat. Last week, Governor Cox signed an executive order temporarily restricting fireworks through the July 4 holiday weekend.
As smoke billowed over the mountains and canyons, residents have watched their cabins and campgrounds, homes and infrastructure disappear in the flames.
Shalyn Davis Yardley, of Beaver, Utah, said her family lost their cabin in the Cottonwood fire. Her father spent years building it with his father long ago.
Mrs. Yardley remembers sharing homemade ice cream and Dutch oven potatoes at the cabin, and going sledding at New Year’s. On Sundays, her family would gather there for dinner. “It was like our little sanctuary,” she said.
She hasn’t gone to visit the area since the cabin burned. “I don’t think we have grasped the concept that it’s actually gone,” she said.
Evacuation orders have been issued across Colorado. Communities outside the city of Ouray, in the southern part of the state, have been ordered to leave. Video on social media shows the surrounding ridgeline engulfed in flames Saturday night, as the fire ominously rushed downhill.
“There are only so many places for attacking fire in steep terrain, and first responders have to be very diligent where they put people,” Ouray County said in a statement.
In Mesa County, Colo., on the border of Utah, authorities have issued a pre-evacuation order, as pop-up fires grow into each other, burning nearly 30,000 acres in the last 24 hours.
“It’s pretty somber here,” said Cody Davis, a county commissioner in Grand Junction, where the skies have been thick with smoke.
At the coroner’s office, the flag-draped bodies were wheeled on gurneys into a hospital hallway lined with over 50 firefighters from multiple western Colorado agencies.
Some emergency workers slung arms around each other as they waited to escort the bodies inside.
Among the firefighters protecting the area was Joe Simard, a member of Truckee Hotshots, a highly trained crew based in Truckee, Calif., who was sent to Utah.
His father, Paul Simard, of San Luis Obispo, Calif., awoke early Sunday and used a location-sharing app to check on his son. Joe’s phone hadn’t moved for four hours.
Lisa Simard, his mother, said she felt a wave of relief when they finally learned that he was safe.
“Then it switched to complete sorrow for the mothers that lost a child,” she said in a text message.
Georgia Gee contributed research.
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