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Colorado wildfires: Western Slope fires scorch more than 22,000 acres

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Colorado wildfires: Western Slope fires scorch more than 22,000 acres


Four fires burning on Colorado’s western slope have spread to more than 22,000 acres and forced ongoing evacuations, fire officials said Wednesday.

Disaster declarations have been issued for two of the wildfires actively burning with no containment: the Leroux fire burning near Hotchkiss in Delta County and the Elk fire burning near Meeker in Rio Blanco County.

Lightning sparked three of the fires over the weekend, and the flames rapidly grew in the Western Slope’s dry vegetation, exacerbated by windy, hot and dry weather, officials said.

Multiple Colorado and federal recreation areas remain closed Wednesday, including Oak Ridge, Rio Blanco, Colorow Mountain and Piceance state wildlife areas and parts of the White River National Forest and San Juan National Forest.

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Jump to: Lee fire | Elk fire | Leroux fire | Stoner Mesa fire

The Lee fire southwest of Meeker

A wildfire burning in Rio Blanco County has scorched more than 14,000 acres, fire officials said Tuesday.

The Lee fire, which has since absorbed the Grease fire that also started near Meeker, was last mapped at 14,426 acres, fire officials said.

Meeker is about 70 miles northwest of Glenwood Springs and 40 miles north of Interstate 70.

Afternoon winds fueled the fire, pushing the flames up to Colorado 13, fire officials said in a Tuesday evening update. The fire has not yet crossed the highway.

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Incident managers are “evaluating the direction and rates of fire spread” to determine if additional evacuations need to be issued, according to the update.

As of Wednesday morning, the evacuation area was bordered to the east by Colorado 13 and the Grand Hogback, the north by Colorado 64, the west by Rio Blanco County Road 5 and the south by Bald Knob Mountain, Fourteenmile Creek and County Road 22, according to the evacuation map.

Multiple areas north and east of the current evacuation zones are on pre-evacuation status, according to the map.

The Elk fire east of Meeker

A second wildfire burning just miles away from the Lee fire, on the other side of Meeker, had consumed nearly 7,800 acres as of Tuesday, according to fire officials.

The lightning-sparked Elk fire is burning on roughly 7,751 acres of land with no containment, fire officials said Tuesday. It has destroyed at least two homes and one outbuilding since it started Saturday afternoon.

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Officials said 130 fire personnel were fighting the wildfire Tuesday evening.

“Conditions are conducive to large fire growth, with all key factors for extreme fire behavior,” fire officials said in a Tuesday evening update.

Hot and dry conditions continue to fuel the fires on either side of Meeker, with red flag warnings scheduled from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

The alert warns of low humidity between 8% and 13%, gusty winds up to 35 mph, and more.



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Man found dead in Colorado’s Black Canyon of the Gunnison

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Man found dead in Colorado’s Black Canyon of the Gunnison


A deceased male was found at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park on the morning of March 24, according to the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office. Upon arriving at the scene around 8:40 a.m., deputies talked with possible witnesses and determined that a deceased male was located in the canyon. The man’s body was below […]



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Driver dies days after head-on collision in Colorado Springs; surviving driver may have been involved in a race, police say

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Driver dies days after head-on collision in Colorado Springs; surviving driver may have been involved in a race, police say


COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – One person is dead after unwittingly getting in the middle of a car race over the weekend.

Police say the victim was traveling westbound on Briargate Boulevard near Lexington Drive when an eastbound car slammed into them head-on.

“Preliminary information indicated that the eastbound vehicle had been engaged in a speed contest with another vehicle prior to the collision,” the Colorado Springs Police Department wrote in a blotter post on the crash.

Both drivers were taken to the hospital with serious injuries, but at the time they were transported, the injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.

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“It was later reported that the driver of the westbound vehicle died as a result of complications related to surgery stemming from the crash,” police said.

CSPD’s Major Crash Team is investigating the head-on collision. Speed is suspected as a factor in the crash.

There’s currently no word on whether the surviving driver will face charges.



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Biological sex and transgender rights for youth at the center of Colorado ballot measures

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Biological sex and transgender rights for youth at the center of Colorado ballot measures


COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – Colorado voters will be asked in November whether or not state laws should change on how youth sports are organized and who is allowed to have certain surgeries in the state.

Protect Kids Colorado (PKC) is an organization that worked to get initiatives 109 and 110 on the ballot. Kevin Lundberg, a republican and former Colorado State Senator and State Representative, serves on the organization’s Board of Directors.

According to it’s website, PKC “is a grassroots, We the People movement to educate, unify, and mobilize … any concerned citizen to protect kids from becoming victims of a dangerous and false ideology.”

Several LGBTQ+ advocates in Colorado oppose the initiatives, including One Colorado. On Instagram, the organization called the measures “dangerous” and “anti-trans.”

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Initiative 109 asks voters to make a new state law, requiring students compete on sports teams aligned with their biological sex, starting in kindergarten and lasting through higher education. There would be an exception for females to join male teams if there is no female team available. Schools and athletic associations would have to designate teams as male, female or coeducational.

Initiative 110 seeks to prohibit biological sex-altering surgery on minors. Doctors would not be allowed to provide such procedures, and public insurance companies, including Medicaid reimbursement, would not be allowed to pay for them.

Leaders with Inside Out Youth Services (IOYS), an LGBTQ+ advocacy group based in Colorado Springs, say these measures would harm young people.

“The message that this would send to our young people is that they matter less than their peers,” said Ollie Glessner with IOYS. “It would send the message that they don’t exist, their identities don’t exist and aren’t worth protecting.”

Erin Lee, Executive Director for PKC, says the measures secure protections that previous state legislative proposals have sought to secure but failed.

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“These are not right versus left issues, these are just right versus wrong issues. And so we wanted to give the people a way to still put these common sense safeguards in place for children,” Lee said.

Similar proposals are being considered by congress within the SAVE Act.

The election is November 3.



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