CASTLE ROCK, Colo. -- Yellow and orange flames shot 30 feet into the air and curled up the trunks of ponderosa pines in the foothills of the Rockies yesterday, as firefighters ignited back burns to combat the biggest blaze in Colorado's recorded history.
The burns, set at the base of hills, are designed to move with the wind up and away from endangered homes, marked off by lines dug in the dirt. The plan is that by the time the wildfire reaches there, it will stop short because all the fuel -- brush, needles, pine cones -- has already been burned up. Nearby houses are doused with water, and brush and trees are cut away for further protection.
"Hey, kids, walk down a little lower and start two more lines, same size as the first," a red-helmeted commander shouted at a half-dozen firefighters. They stood just 50 yards from two small cabins.
Only half a mile away, the Hayman wildfire that has engulfed nearly 100,000 acres southwest of Denver swept across a hillside, sending vast plumes of smoke skyward. The fire, easily visible to satellites orbiting 100 miles above the Earth, has become the top firefighting priority in the nation, though other blazes across the hot, dry West were vying for that spot.
The enormous blaze is believed to have begun as an illegal campfire Saturday in Pike National Forest.
Feasting on timber dried by drought and strong winds, the fire raced north, destroying dozens of homes as it swept within 30 miles of Denver. Firefighters say only a huge rainstorm can stop it.
"My guess is, you'll probably have fire in there till the snow falls," said Joe Colwell, a fire information officer for the U.S. Forest Service.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency promised yesterday to give Colorado $20 million immediately toward the cost of fighting the blaze, which was still too dangerous to battle directly, and six other major fires raging in the state.
"If they put people on the ground there and all of a sudden the wind changes, they'd burn up people," said Colwell. Instead, he said, crews are digging lines north of the fire and setting back burns.
A half-dozen helicopters dumped water on hot spots yesterday. One that flared up in the morning was near the town of Trumbull (population 36), where gray smoke climbed hundreds of feet above foothills covered with pines. The chopper made four-minute laps between the fire and the South Platte River, where it refilled a 500- gallon bucket.
Authorities have closed roads more than 10 miles from the fire and shut down Pike National Forest, popular with tourists for hiking, climbing and canoeing. The towns in these foothill are small outposts, usually with a few homes and a general store.
They are connected by rocky dirt roads that snake over hills and around bends. Some valleys and rivers were hazy with smoke yesterday, and all of the homes were deserted. Many of them are termed recreational residences by the Forest Service, which has prohibited their construction for decades.
The value of those that are left has shot upward. An 800- square-foot cabin recently sold for $85,000, a Forest Service official said.
'This is our job'
But most of the homes at risk, like those in Trumbull, are on private land. At least 22 homes have burned in this fire, and another 2,500 were threatened yesterday. Trumbull, at the northern edge of the fire, has so far been spared, partly due to the efforts of its tiny volunteer fire department. The eight-person crew refused to leave when the town was evacuated Sunday.
"I'm not stupid, I don't want to die," said Dave Ferguson, 43, who's lived in the town for 20 years. "But this is our job. We're a fire department, and we're going to save our little town."
He said the department saved several houses "two draws over" in Lazy Gulch, pumping water from the nearby river. By yesterday, reinforcements in the form of an elite California wildfire team had arrived. They brought 45 men and 10 shiny yellow engines, which dwarfed Trumbull's old Chevy pickups.
But the California firefighters were full of praise for their Trumbull colleagues, who had survived without outside aid for three days.
"These guys have been working their tail off without a lot of resources," said Jim Parrott, a fire chief from Pinole, Calif. "They deserve a lot of credit."
His crews were preparing to defend homes yesterday, clearing perimeters around houses.
"Hopefully, the homeowners will have done that, but many times they haven't," he said.
Fire officials expressed some frustration with people who don't prepare their homes and land for wildfires. Some homes, tucked into hillsides, had cedar roofs and trees growing through their decks.
"It's a status thing, to have wood-shake roofs," Colwell said. "For the life of me, I cannot comprehend how stupid they can be. If an ember hits it, it can burn."
Castle Rock and other towns in the foothills of the Rockies have boomed in the past decade, with their stunning views and easy access to Denver and Colorado Springs. These towns, many threatened this week by the wildfire, grew to a total population of 20,900 -- an almost 50 percent leap from 1990 to 2000, according to census data.
"Everybody wants to escape the rat race," Colwell said.
Grab it and go
Now they're escaping their picturesque homes. About 5,500 people in three counties were not allowed to return to their homes yesterday. Evacuation centers were set up by the Red Cross at public schools.
At Woodland Park High School on the southern flank of the blaze, hundreds gathered in the school gym, desperate for information. Others sat by their motor homes in the parking lot.
"I heard my cabin's been completely burned up," said Richard Ward, 71. He built the cabin himself 20 years ago on 5 1/2 acres deep in the forest. He left it Monday night, speeding away in his motor home, as the flames danced from the trees behind him.
"This fire moved real fast," he said, sipping a bottle of beer. Overhead, the clouds were black with smoke that arced up from the hills below. Ash fell on his warm-up jacket.
"I grabbed the booze and the cash and said, 'Let's go.' That house is my whole life. If you're a pioneer, you dig in the dirt and you build your life. I got my last wife's ashes up on that property, and that's where I want mine to be, too."
He might have quite a wait until the site is safe once more. The Hayman fire is only 5 percent contained, and officials said yesterday that they expect to be battling it all summer.
More heat, drought
Weather forecasters didn't offer much hope for relief. They said yesterday that the seasonal outlook was for persistent drought and above-normal temperatures through September throughout most of the mountain West, from Southern California to southwest Texas, and north to Montana.
In the eastern half of Colorado, where the Hayman fire is burning, the second half of June is normally dry, said climatologist Douglas LeComte of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction in Camp Springs, Md.
And the summer thunderstorms that develop in early to mid-July usually don't deliver significant rainfall but always pose the risk of lightning that can spark new fires.
"Normally, they do get some scattered showers, but they don't make much of a difference," LeComte said. "And a lot of people in the West are actually quite afraid of it. Some say they would rather stay bone dry this summer than face the prospect of lightning."
Sun staff writer Frank D. Roylance contributed to this article.