Western Wildfires

Three firefighters have died and two were injured while battling fires on the Colorado-Utah border. The U.S. Wildland Fire Service says they were responding to the Knowles and Gore fires on Saturday. Wildfire activity has intensified across the Western U.S. due to hot, dry, and windy weather. The largest blaze, the Cottonwood Fire, has grown to over 146 square miles in southwest Utah. Utah's governor declared an emergency earlier this week, and Colorado's governor on Saturday followed suit and authorized the National Guard to help. Conditions have been critical, with record-low snowpack and extreme drought fueling the fires.

Federal officials say the three firefighters killed over the weekend in a Colorado wildfire were part of a “hotshots” crew that goes into remote areas to quickly put out new fires. Two other crew members suffered burns. The crew was overcome Saturday after deploying emergency shelters to shield themselves from fast-moving fires. The U.S. Forest Service identified the firefighters killed in Colorado as 38-year-old Emily Barker of Clinton Township, Michigan; 27-year-old Nick Hutcherson of Glendale, Arizona; and 26-year-old Sydney Watson of Warrior, Alabama. Officials say firefighting resources are beginning to be strained as the risk of more wildfires worsens this week across the West.