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Colorado Fires: Thousands of Homes Evacuated, Prisoners Moved

Smoke rises from the Black Forest Fire near Colorado Springs.
Kirk Siegler
/
NPR
Smoke rises from the Black Forest Fire near Colorado Springs.

More than 900 prisoners were evacuated from a state prison near Colorado Springs, Colo., early Wednesday as one of four wildfires across the Front Range moved toward the facility, The Associated Press writes.

About 2,500 homes and businesses in northeast El Paso County have also been evacuated, according to The Denver Post.

Colorado Public Radio's Megan Verlee tells our Newscast Desk that at least 60 homes have been destroyed by one of the fires. The most damaging blaze so far, she says, is the Black Forest Fire that has engulfed some homes in a heavily wooded development near Colorado Springs.

The National Interagency Coordination Center says the Black Forest Fire has so far consumed about 7,500 acres and is zero percent contained.

The Post is live blogging about the fires here. So far, it reports, the cause for the Black Forest blaze has not been determined. The Post has also put some video online here.

There are no reports of injuries or deaths at this point.

Related:

-- NPR's "Fire Forecast" app, which is updated daily. We'll embed it below as well. The interactive should take you right to Colorado Springs, but you can change the location by entering a new "zip code, city, etc."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
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