Human remains found in house destroyed by Colorado wildfire

DENVER (AP) — Human remains were found in a house burned by a Colorado wildfire, authorities said Wednesday as almost 100 large blazes burned across the western U.S.

The body was discovered in one of as many as five homes that burned in a fire about one mile (1.6 kilometers) north of Lyons, Colorado, the Boulder County Sheriff Curtis Johnson said. He said detectives were assisting the investigation into the death but declined to provide further details

The fire began Tuesday afternoon and had burned about two square miles (five square kilometers) by Wednesday morning. It was listed as zero percent contained on a federal wildfire report Wednesday that said 150 personnel were battling the blaze.

It was one of several large fires burning on Colorado’s Front Range. A fire at the edge of the Denver metro area west of the small town of Conifer triggered the evacuation of about 575 houses overnight Tuesday. That fire was less than one square mile (2.5 square kilometers) as of Tuesday night. Jefferson County officials said resources were stretched thin and they had not yet controlled the fire.

Across the U.S. almost 28,000 firefighters were battling 95 large fires, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

—

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.