Colorado wildfires kill 3, prompt evacuations

ORDWAY, Colo. – Wildfires in warm, windy weather burned into a southeast Colorado town and on an Army post Tuesday, and a firefighting pilot and two other people died.

All 1,100 residents of the town of Ordway were told to leave because of a fire that burned across 7,100 acres, or 11 square miles, authorities said. By 9 p.m. Tuesday, firefighters had contained about 50 percent of the fire, which damaged at least 20 buildings, four within town limits, fire spokesman Chris Sorensen said.

Crowley County sheriff’s Deputy Bill Hamilton said late Tuesday he didn’t immediately have details on the two deaths.

The pilot died when the crop duster-type plane crashed along a highway just east of Fort Carson, said Mike Fergus of the Federal Aviation Administration. A fire there had burned about 9,000 acres, or 14 square miles.