BEAVER, Utah — Three firefighters were killed and two others were injured while battling fast-moving wildfires along the Colorado-Utah border as blazes driven by extreme heat, strong winds and dry conditions spread across the U.S. West, authorities said on Monday.
The U.S. Department of the Interior said the five firefighters were involved in a burnover incident on Saturday while responding to the Knowles and Gore fires in western Colorado's Mesa County. The fires later merged into what officials have named the Snyder Fire. The two surviving firefighters were hospitalized with burn injuries, officials said.
The identities of the three firefighters have not yet been released pending family notification, and officials said an investigation into the circumstances of the burnover is underway. The U.S. Wildland Fire Service said its immediate focus was supporting the victims' families, friends and fellow firefighters.
The National Weather Service warned that critical fire weather conditions persisted across the Four Corners region, where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet, with low humidity, high temperatures and gusty winds expected to fuel rapid fire growth.
Elsewhere in the region, the Cottonwood Fire in southwestern Utah expanded to more than 90,000 acres, making it one of the nation's largest active wildfires, while additional large fires continued burning across several western states. Officials in Utah and Colorado have declared states of emergency and mobilized additional firefighting resources as evacuation orders and warnings remained in effect in some communities.
Fire crews continued working to contain multiple uncontained blazes on Monday, while authorities said weather conditions remained favorable for dangerous fire behavior and that the situation was continuing to develop.
