The wildfires spreading through Colorado around the Colorado Springs area are among the worst fires the state has seen in a decade.
The Colorado Springs fires started burning around the weekend of June 23 and have caused chaos and destruction all around the state. According to CNN, the fires have covered more than 18,000 acres of land, forcing over 36,000 residents in the Colorado Springs area to leave their homes. Several hundred homes and buildings have been destroyed due to the blaze.
Another fire, the High Park fire near Fort Collins has been burning since June 9 and has burnt over 87,000 acres of land.
The wildfires have also caused problems for the Colorado tourism industry.The area usually draws in tourists who wish to hike around the parks and mountains and engage in activities like taking boats through whitewater rapids. However, several hotels have closed or had to evacuate and others are being filled with residents who are displaced from their homes and workers who are fighting the fires.
The fires are believed to have started due to high temperatures and a lack of rains in the area and they have spread all across the region by wind gusts of 65 miles per hour.
The fires are so large that they might not be fully under control until mid-July, even though firefighters and emergency crews are working around the clock to try to stop them.
According to the Huffington Post, there are at least six fires burning in the area including the Waldo Canyon Fire near Colorado Springs, Flagstaff Fire near Boulder, High Park Fire near Fort Collins, Little Sand near Pagosa Springs, Treasure Fire near Leadville and the Weber Fire burning near Mancos.
Here is a satellite image provided by NASA that shows the location of the fires on June 25.
The City of Colorado Springs also issued a map which shows the mandatory evacuation areas.Tens of thousands of people have already evacuated from the area.
Click Here to see the evacuation area map.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
