Colorado Wildfire Missing: 5 Total

By: Jennifer Hong
09/09/2010 07:33 AM ET

Colorado Wildfire Missing: 5 Total. Five people remain missing from the fire in Boulder, Colorado as firefighters battle the blaze for a third day. The wildfires destroyed 140 homes in Colorado, up from 92 reported earlier on Wednesday.

Wildfires are still blazing but sporadic rainfall helped douse some of the blaze. The fire, which erupted Monday in Fourmile Canyon northwest of the state capital Denver, affected about 6,400 acres of land. It also destroyed some 140 homes and other buildings, up from 92 reported earlier on Wednesday, officials confirmed.

“It’s still spread out over the burn area,” Laura McConnell, of the Rocky Mountain Incident Management team, said in a statement. “We’ve seen some of the growth on the northeast side of the burn area,” McConnell added. “But there’s not a rushing wall of flame in any direction,” she said, adding that aircraft dropped 35,000 gallons (132,490 liters) of fire retardant in the area during the day.

Missing were eight people reported earlier in the day, but by the end of the day, the figure was cut to five. It was unclear whether those missing were affected by the blaze, or were simply unaccounted for because they could not be contacted. More than 200 firefighters, 24 fire engines and nine aircraft are still fighting the wildfires.

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