{"id":745396,"date":"2026-07-05T23:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T23:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/745396\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T23:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T23:07:10","slug":"thunderstorms-heat-and-wind-will-hamper-efforts-to-contain-colorado-wildfires-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/745396\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunderstorms, heat and wind will hamper efforts to contain Colorado wildfires : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

\n The Aspen Acres Fire burns on Friday in Rye, Colo.<\/p>\n

Michael Ciaglo\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Michael Ciaglo\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Thunderstorms with high winds on Sunday could hamper efforts to contain a massive wildfire that has scorched parts of southern Colorado.<\/p>\n

The Aspen Acres Fire, which is burning south of Colorado Springs across Pueblo and Custer counties, has grown to more than 86,000 acres. It began nearly a week ago and is 13% contained, officials said on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a> <\/p>\n

Authorities have ordered people to evacuate or to prepare to evacuate across counties including Custer, Pueblo, Huerfano and Fremont.<\/p>\n

Scattered showers and thunderstorms could hit south central and southwest Colorado on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Officials and forecasters say the rain could be beneficial for firefighting but are concerned it could lead to road damage in burned areas and cause flash flooding.<\/p>\n

“The main threats from storms will be gusty outflow winds up to 50 mph and lightning,” the NWS office in Pueblo said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Red flag warnings and air quality alerts have also been issued across the state, with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment on Sunday warning residents<\/a> to limit time outdoors because of heavy smoke.<\/p>\n

Other wildfires are burning in the state, including the Ferris Fire in southwest Colorado that has grown to more than 42,000 acres and is 7% contained as of Sunday afternoon. The Gold Mountain Fire, which is also in the southwest portion of the state, has grown to more than 25,000 acres and is 0% contained as of Sunday.<\/p>\n

A memorial service was held on Sunday for three firefighters who were killed battling wildfires on the Colorado-Utah border on June 27: Emily Barker, Sydney Watson and Nick Hutcherson.<\/p>\n

The firefighters, along with two others, were involved in a “burnover incident,” which happens when firefighters are overtaken and have to shelter as best they can while a fire passes directly over them, according to the Department of Interior. Two firefighters survived and were treated for burns.<\/p>\n

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis ordered flags to fly half-staff in honor of the deceased firefighters.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a> <\/p>\n

“These three brave heroes ran towards the flames, put themselves in harm’s way, and gave the ultimate sacrifice to protect Coloradans, our communities and our families,” Polis said in a social media post<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Another fire across the border in southern Utah, the Babylon Fire, has grown to more than 90,000 acres and is O% contained as of Sunday afternoon. It is expected to be hot and dry through Monday, with very little humidity, officials said, making conditions challenging for containment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Aspen Acres Fire burns on Friday in Rye, Colo. Michael Ciaglo\/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Michael…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-745396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}