FOXNews.com: Wildfire Burns ThousandsOf Acres in Colorado

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Wildfire Burns ThousandsOf Acres in Colorado Jun 10th 2012, 05:10 FORT COLLINS, Colo. –  Crews are battling a wildfire in northern Colorado that has scorched 5,000 acres and prompted several dozen evacuation orders. Larimer County Sheriff's spokesman John Schulz says the fire was reported just before 6 a.m. Saturday in the Paradise Park area. He says at least 46 structures and likely many more have been evacuated, and an evacuation center has been set up at a middle school in Laporte. Ten structures have been damaged, although authorities were unsure if they were homes or some other kind of buildings. A sheriff's statement says two heavy air tankers, five single-engine air tankers and four helicopters are on the scene. The fire appears to be burning on private and U.S. Forest Service land. Aerial footage from Denver-based KMGH-TV showed flames coming dangerously close to what appeared to be several outbuildings and at least one home in the area, consuming trees and sending a large plume of smoke into the air. "Right now we're just trying to get these evacuations done and get people safe," Schulz told the station, adding that "given the extreme heat in the area, it makes it a difficult time for (the firefighters)." Temperatures near Fort Collins reached the mid-80s Saturday afternoon, with humidity between 5 percent and 10 percent. "It was just good conditions to grow," National Weather Service meteorologist Chad Gimmestad told The Associated Press. "The conditions today were really favorable for it to take off." He said firefighters should benefit from cooler weather this evening, but the cold front is expected to bring wind gusts as high as 40 mph. "It's a trade off," he said. "The biggest thing might be that it will be pushing (the fire) in a different direction, and the way this is playing out, it might be in the direction of homes." Also Saturday, KMGH reported that a grass fire destroyed at least four outbuildings near Interstate 25 and Colorado 7 in Erie. Images from the station's helicopter showed at least one car engulfed in flames.

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