Colorado's largest-ever wildfire grows to nearly 200,000 acres
The Cameron Peak Fire has grown into the largest wildfire in Colorado history. It has burned more than 199,356 acres and more than 1,500 personnel are battling the blaze.
While the fire is 62% contained, mandatory evacuations are still in place near highway 34 in Larimer County, according to the Larimer County Sheriff's Office.
Several alerts remain in place Saturday evening across northern Colorado as the fire danger continues.
Dense smoke plumes from the fires are expected to increase through weekend, with the smoke spreading into northeastern Colorado, crossing over into southwestern Nebraska and northwestern Kansas by Saturday night.
Local authorities are also battling a separate wildfire, the Calwood Fire, which sparked Saturday in Boulder County. The fire prompted mandatory evacuations in Jamestown, about 100 miles north of Larimer County, and residents in surrounding areas were told to prepare for possible evacuation orders as well.
It had grown to over 7,000 acres Saturday night after starting earlier in the day.
Mike Wagner, division chief for the Boulder Sheriff's Office, said there are about 1,600 homes within the evacuation area. He said multiple homes have likely been lost, but the scene is too active to know for sure.
While the record-breaking fires continue to burn in California and Colorado, there are fire dangers in other parts of the U.S. this weekend.
Red flag warnings were posted across 10 states, from Indiana to California as of Saturday evening.
Gusty winds coupled with very low relative humidity are forecasted across these areas through Saturday, exacerbating the fire weather to “elevated” and even “critical” risk in some areas.
In a rare event, the fire risk in the Midwest comes at the same time there are cold weather alerts.
Frost advisories and freeze warnings are posted just to the east from northern Alabama to parts of New England.
Wind gusts topped 50 mph in some areas in parts of the Midwest, complicating matters for firefighters.
Meanwhile, folks across the Ohio River Valley and parts of the Northeast are waking up to wind chill values in the 30s for the first time this season.
Winter weather advisories are posted from Montana to northern Minnesota this weekend.
Four to 6 inches of snow is expected through Sunday morning in parts of Wyoming and Montana.
