Waldo Canyon Fire At 15,324 Acres, Unknown Number Of Homes Burn

Waldo Canyon Fire At 15,324 Acres, Unknown Number Of Homes Burn

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) â€" The Waldo Canyon Fire in the Colorado Springs has grown to 15,324 acres and destroyed an undetermined number of homes.

Tens of thousands are evacuated because of the fire, which started on Saturday but began burning homes in the Mountain Shadows neighborhood Tuesday night.

“This is an active fire. It’s not even remotely close to being contained,” said Colorado Springs Fire Chief Rich Brown Wednesday morning.

Approximately 26,000 people were evacuated on Tuesday, an unprecedented emergency action for the city.

Early Tuesday night new evacuations were ordered for Rockrimmon and Woodmen Valley, west and north of Woodmen Road and Interstate 25 and west and north of Rockrimmon Boulevard and Vindicator Drive. Also under evacuation orders is Pinon Valley and Pine Cliff, west and north of Garden of the Gods Road and I-25 to Centennial north to Ute Valley Park. The Air Force Academy ordered evacuations for more than 2,100 residents on its grounds. A pre-evacuation notice is also in effect in the southwest corner of Douglas County as of Wednesday morning due to the fire.

“All of our people have been fighting that fire all night long. They are fighting it as we speak. And the thing that I want to highlight to you all is this is not a defensive situation to any stretch. There are countless examples of house saves. There are some homes impacted, there’s no question about it. I am absolutely not prepared to release that number. We don’t know the number,” Brown said.

On Wednesday officials said they are working hard to keep the evacuated neighborhoods safe.

“The affected neighborhoods will be protected by our police officers both at traffic control points and by officers in vehicles,” Colorado Springs Police Chief Peter Carey said.

Gov. John Hickenlooper viewed the fire from the air late Tuesday and met with emergency crews.

“We saw a pretty grim scene … an army of firefighters couldn’t stop that,” Hickenlooper said. “At first I thought they were trees burning once we came in on the helicopter, and they were houses. The devastation is pretty intense.”

The Red Cross shelter at the Cheyenne Mountain High School is open. Residents can bring small caged pets and companion animals (cats dogs) with them to the shelter. The Penrose Equestrian Center is sheltering large animals.

Waldo Canyon Fire on June 27 (credit: CBS)

Tuesday afternoon CBS4′s Rick Sallinger was taken on a tour of the fire along Highway 24 west to the town of Cascade. He reported seeing trees burning along side of the road. Spotters were seen chasing embers to keep the fire spreading to the other side of the highway. One ember did.

“It had a lot of potential of starting to spread on me right when I got up there and I had the rest of my crew bumping up there with tools and packs; bladder bags with water,” Bureau of Land Management firefighter Leif Larson said.

The fire’s cause remains under investigation.

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