Several wildfires raged unchecked across drought-parched Colorado on Thursday, one threatening oil and gas wells close to the Utah border and another about 482km to the southeast chased a group of Boy Scouts from their camp near New Mexico.
A separate wind-whipped fire roaring through chaparral and pine forests in central Arizona forced the evacuation of about 460 homes near the town of Prescott, about 160km north of Phoenix.
Scorching temperatures, low humidity and gusting winds have much of Colorado under red-flag warnings for extreme fire danger, the National Weather Service said in a bulletin.
In northwestern Colorado near the Utah state line, an 850-acre, wind-driven wildfire prompted the evacuation of 40 oil and gas well sites on Wednesday in Rio Blanco County, according to the US Bureau of Land Management. Firefighters were working on Thursday to prevent flames from moving into the complex.
“Hampering firefighting efforts is limited access, rugged terrain, thick smoke and high winds,” the bureau said in a statement, noting that firefighters observed wind-blown embers igniting new spot fires up to a 800 metres away.
At the southern end of Colorado, a separate wind-driven blaze near the Spanish Peaks in Huerfano County grew to 404 hectares after forcing about 200 scouts and staff members to flee their camp on Wednesday.
Michael Stewart, executive director of the Santa Fe Council of the Boy Scouts of America, said scout leaders first noticed smoke over a ridgeline, then spotted flames moving toward their camp and notified authorities.