Residents returning to homes near Carson

Snow and rain and a round-the-clock battle on fire lines brought wildfires on Fort Carson and near Ordway under control, allowing hundreds of evacuated residents to return home this afternoon. For about 700 people forced from homes neighboring the Army post south of Colorado Springs as a grass fire grew overnight to more than 8,900 acres, homecoming was a relief - no houses were damaged.

In Ordway, 50 miles east of Pueblo, where a 9,000-acre fire forced the evactuation of the 1,200 residents, the scene was grimmer: About two dozen building were damaged and some residents found ashes where their homes had stood.

Three firefighters died Tuesday while the fires raged - two in Ordway and one at Fort Carson.

The Ordway blaze was 98 percent contained this afternoon, and the Fort Carson fire was 20-30 percent contained.

Gert Marais, 42 of Fort Benton, Mont., died when his plane crashed about 6:15 p.m. Tuesday after dumping slurry on the Fort Carson fire.

The others who died were volunteer firefighters from Olney Springs who were heading to Ordway. Terry DeVore, 30, and John Schwartz, 38, died about 4 p.m. Tuesday when their truck drove into a ditch after the fire burned beneath a bridge and caused it to collapse.

Firefighters labored against high temperatures, low humidity and winds gusting to 50 mph Tuesday. By Wednesday evening, a driving snow had stopped the fire at Fort Carson in its tracks, officials said, and rain was forecast for Ordway.

"This is just what we needed," El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said, warning that the explosiveness of the fire could be a sign of things to come.

"It got very huge very rapidly," he said.

The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, sent a U.S. Forest Service team Wednesday, which took over fighting the Fort Carson fire.

At the height of the fire on the post, evacuations forced more than 700 people people living west of Colorado Highway 115 between Barrett Road and Fort Carson's Gate 5 to flee their homes.

The El Paso County Sheriff's Office announced this afternoon that residents could return to their homes along Highway 115. The road and Fort Carson Gates 1 and 5 were set to reopen at 7 p.m.

About a dozen people took refuge Tuesday night in a shelter at Pikes Peak Community College.

Patrice LaRow, Red Cross volunteer at the shelter, said it was a nervous night. Flames could be seen from the campus, she said.

At a shelter opened on Fort Carson, 65 people spent the night on Army cots.

"I'm anxious to go home, but I don't want to go home prematurely," said Gail Patterson, who left her home just west of Fort Carson after a 10 p.m. phone call Tuesday gave her an automated evacuation message.

Scores of residents tried to make their way home early Tuesday but were turned back by deputies blocking Highway 115.

"I'm not so concerned about the fire. I can build another house," said resident Anne Gerber as she waited impatiently at a roadblock. "I just can't stand the thought of my dogs being burned alive."

The Ordway fire shut portions of Colorado highways 71 and 96. Highway 71 reopened this afternoon, but Highway 96 remained closed because of the collapsed bridge.

Gov. Bill Ritter, who toured the Ordway fire scene today, declared the fire burning in Crowley County a state emergency and made $500,000 available from the State Disaster Emergency Fund. The money will be used to help defray firefighting and recovery costs in and around Ordway.

Flames started about 2 p.m. Tuesday west of town, off mile marker 102 of Highway 96, and were fanned east by 30 mph wind gusts and temperatures in the high 80s. The blaze burned around the town and was on both the east and west sides, Sorensen said.

Both fires remained under investigation. Officials wouldn't confirm it, but residents of Ordway reported widespread rumors that the fire there was started by a resident's burning trash.

Maketa said it could be days before investigators found the cause of the Fort Carson fire.