BOULDER, Colo. -- Firefighters encountered a tangle of rattlesnakes, poison ivy, downed power lines and combustible propane tanks Wednesday as authorities looked for four people missing in a wildfire that has destroyed a reported 135 homes.
Some residents have refused to leave the area and stayed behind, risking their lives to try to save their homes. Authorities are following up with family members and checking homes in the area to find the missing.
About 3,500 people have been evacuated from about 1,000 homes since the 6,168-acre fire broke out Monday in a parched area north of Boulder. Residents of four neighborhoods will be allowed to return home this morning.
Firefighters took advantage of cooler temperatures and cloud cover to attack the wildfire but authorities acknowledged they still don't have control of the blaze.
A list released Wednesday by the Boulder County Sheriff's Office includes 135 destroyed homes, four other totaled structures and at least 12 homes damaged by the 6,168-acre fire, which officials say is only 10 percent contained.
The reported losses surpass those of the 2002 Hayman fire in Colorado that was the most destructive in state history. It destroyed 133 homes and 466 outbuildings.
Seven of the country's 19 heavy air tankers have been sent to Colorado to fight the blaze, considered the nation's top firefighting priority, and Ken Frederick, spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, said Wednesday that two more have been dispatched to the fire.
Also working at the fire is Terry Cullen, aviation unit supervisor in the Ogden-based Forest Service's flight station at Ogden-Hinckley Airport.
Cullen flies a smaller plane in front of the air tankers, guiding them to the fire and showing them where to drop their load. The air tankers are contracted by the Forest Service, but Cullen works for the Forest Service.
Cullen said he has been all over the nation this fire season, with Colorado only the latest stop. Except for quick visits, he has been in Ogden only a week and a half all summer.
From where he sits, "the fire is coming on pretty good," he said in a phone interview Wednesday with the Standard-Examiner. "Yesterday, they made some big improvements."
He said he expects to be on this fire until the middle of next week.
It's unclear whether the four people unaccounted for were linked to some of the 136 homes that have been reported destroyed.
One wildfire is burning in Utah, covering 10,608 acres in Twitchell Canyon in the Fishlake National Forest. It is not considered as dangerous because it is threatening few residences.
The Forest Service has seven Hot Shot crews, a Type 2 Initial Attack crew, five helicopters and two fire engines fighting the fire.
Crews are containing existing spot fires and targeting areas with the highest potential for fire growth. Two historic structures on U.S. Forest Service land have burned.
The large plume of smoke the Colorado fire had been producing since it started Monday has dissipated, indicating that the burning was less extreme Wednesday thanks to relatively higher humidity and cooler temperatures, said Steve Segin, of the Rocky Mountain Area Coordinating Center, which manages firefighting equipment and crews.
He said that allows firefighters to be more proactive and focus on building lines to contain the Colorado fire.
"Crews still have a lot of work to do," he said.
Fire conditions were expected to worsen tonight into Friday, and the risk of any new fires quickly spreading was high along the populated Front Range region, according to the National Weather Service.
Sheriff's Cmdr. Rich Brough said investigators still are trying to determine the cause of the fire.
At the Colorado Mountain Ranch, 60-year-old Mike Walker has been making a stand against the fire with his wife and 25-year-old daughter in a desperate effort to save the children's summer camp and outdoor recreation center they operate.
"He's safe, he's up there," said Walker's 19-year-old daughter Rose, who evacuated. "He just won't leave. We never doubted where he was. He just won't leave for anybody."
Rose Walker said her father, mother and sister are trying everything to save their ranch, with her father using a tractor to scoop up flames away from structures, "literally dragging the fire away from the buildings."
On Wednesday, Rose Walker said her family members were still at their ranch, using rakes and backpacks filled with water and a hose to put out any hot spots.
Families like the Walkers have been carrying out their own fight against the fire.
Firefighters have been supplying them with water when they can, and Rose Walker said she has been crossing into the fire zone to bring her family food and supplies, although authorities have been reluctant to let her come up to the ranch.
Despite her family's efforts, 35 structures have burned, including the family's home, sheds, barns and work areas, Rose Walker said. It's not clear if those are among the 140 total structures, from sheds to homes, that authorities have already confirmed have burned.
Brough said authorities don't have the time or manpower to force people to leave. However, he said that if a missing person is linked to a burned home, authorities will have to go to the home to see if there are any human remains, tying up resources.
"People are going through trying times right now," Brough said. "We don't have the resources to go up and arrest everybody that's not leaving the area."
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