Fires Burning Down South Near Prisons

...The blaze near Ordway broke out just after 2 p.m. and had grown to an estimated 7,100 acres by nightfall, acting fire information officer Chris Sorensen said.

The fire reached four buildings in town and as many as 16 structures nearby, but the extent of the damage is unknown, Sorensen said.

Among them were "two or three barn fires" and "two or three house fires," a dispatcher in the Crowley County Sheriff's Office said earlier today.

Flames started west of town, off mile marker 102 of Highway 96, and were fanned to the east by wind gusts topping 30 mph in temperatures in the high 80s. The blaze burned around the town and was on both the east and west sides, Sorensen said. The cause of the fire was unknown.

About 1,200 people live in Ordway.

Colorado Highways 71 and 96 were closed in the Ordway area, according to the state Department of Transportation. Colorado Highway 115 south of Colorado Springs also was closed because of the Carson wildfire.

Schoolchildren in Ordway were reportedly taken to the gymnasium of the Sugar Creek Middle School, and an emergency shelter was set up in Crowley.

The Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility six miles east of Ordway is not in danger, said state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti. But the 1,000-inmate facility is on "modified lockdown" to allow staff from the Ordway area to help their families evacuate, she said. The Crowley County Correctional Facility, a private prison 12 miles west of Ordway, is also out of harm's way, Sanguinetti said.

"What we're hoping for is a rise in humidity as the temperatures and winds die down with nightfall," said Polly White of the state Division of Emergency Management.


Staff at the state prison agreed to prepare 200 meals to help feed firefighters, Sorenson said.

Colorado Springs Gazette