Wildfires in Colorado burn dozens of homes and structures, threaten hundreds more

LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) — A wildfire burning in Colorado’s heavily populated Front Range region has burned dozens of homes and outbuildings, while a second fire crept within a quarter-mile of evacuated homes near Denver on Thursday.

Authorities said they were hopeful that hundreds of threatened homes could be saved. But firefighters working in the tree-covered foothills on the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains faced sweltering temperatures, and some were sidelined by heat exhaustion.

The struggle to contain the blazes came after authorities said Wednesday that a person was killed in a wildfire west of Lyons, Colorado. The person's remains were found inside one of five houses that burned.

Almost 100 large fires are raging across the West. The largest, in Northern California, has burned more than 400 houses and other structures, officials reported.

New, large fires were reported in Idaho, southeast Montana and north Texas.

About two dozen homes and outbuildings were damaged or destroyed in a wildfire near Loveland, Colorado, authorities disclosed after an initial survey of the burn area.

Meanwhile, the Quarry Fire southwest of the Denver suburb of Littleton encroached on several large subdivisions after people in 600 homes were ordered to evacuate.

By Thursday afternoon, firefighting aircraft zipped back and forth between the blaze and a nearby reservoir. Planes skimmed the surface to scoop up water and hovering helicopters pumped water into their tanks before returning to the fire to dump their loads.

Jim and Meg Lutes watched from an overlook near their house northeast of the fire as smoke plumed up from the ridges. Their community west of Littleton was not under evacuation orders, but the couple had been ready to start packing a day earlier when flames could be seen blanketing the mountains.

“It can come over that hill pretty quick if the wind changes,” said Jim Lutes, 64, pointing to a nearby ridge.

Five firefighters were injured Wednesday, including four who had heat exhaustion, said Mark Techmeyer, a spokesperson with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

The fire was in steep terrain that made it difficult to access but had been held to less than one square mile (1.8 square kilometers) with no houses yet destroyed, authorities said. It remained a major hazard, with hot temperatures and low humidity elevating the danger.

The fire was discovered Tuesday night by a deputy on patrol in what authorities described as "open areas.” It was small at first but quickly spread.

“I think anytime that you see a small fire in an area like that at 9:00 at night, it makes you scratch your head a little bit," Techmeyer said at a Wednesday briefing when asked if he thought the fire was suspicious.

On Thursday he said the fire has “proven to be one of the most challenging firefights I’ve seen," as helicopters passed overhead.

He was flanked by hillsides where firefighters labored to keep the blaze from hopping a road separating the conflagration from populated areas.

“If we lose that fight, the fire is coming this way,” Techmeyer said, motioning toward dense neighborhoods and Littleton.

The ranks of firefighters more than doubled since the day before, from 75 to 155, most of them volunteers. No structures had been lost as of Thursday afternoon but authorities expected the battle to be a long one.

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin, which operates a large facility just outside the evacuation zone, closed it as a precaution.

Miles to the north near Lyons, officials lifted some evacuations and reported making progress on the Stone Canyon Fire, which has killed one person and destroyed five houses. The cause is under investigation.

California's arson-caused Park Fire northeast of Chico continued to grow, covering about 610 square miles (1,590 square kilometers) as of Thursday morning. That's more than 25 times the size of New York's Manhattan Island.

Losses also increased. The latest updates tallied 437 structures destroyed and 42 damaged, according to Cal Fire. The fire was 18% contained.

Authorities said they faced critical fire weather in the coming days with potential triple-digit temperatures, thunderstorms and erratic winds. Almost 6,000 personnel were helping battle the Park Fire as more fire crews arrived from Utah and Texas.

Scientists say extreme wildfires are becoming more common and destructive in the U.S. West and others parts of the world as climate change warms the planet and droughts become more severe.

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

A helicopter collects water from a small lake to use in a drop on a ridge as the Quarry wildfire burns in the foothills near the Ken Caryl Ranch development Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, southwest of Littleton, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Onlookers gather at a roadblock to watch as a wildfire burns in the mountains near the Ken Caryl Ranch development Wednesday, July 31, 2024, southwest of Littleton, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Helicopter heads toward a ridge to make a water drop on a wildland fire burning near the Ken Caryl Ranch development Wednesday, July 31, 2024, southwest of Littleton, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Flames rise amid the billowing smoke from a wildland fire burning along the ridges near the Ken Caryl Ranch development Wednesday, July 31, 2024, southwest of Littleton, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

A helicopter looks to make a drop of water as the Quarry wildfire burns in the foothills near the Ken Caryl Ranch development Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, southwest of Litteton, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

A helicopter looks to make a water drop as the Quarry wildfire burns in the foothills near the Ken Caryl Ranch development Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, southwest of Litteton, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Helicopter looks to make a water drop as the Quarry wildfire burns in the foothills near the Ken Caryl Ranch development Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, southwest of Litteton, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Emergency vehicles block the roadway as the Quarry wildfire burns in the foothills near the Ken Caryl Ranch development Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, southwest of Litteton, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Onlookers watch as a helicopter drops water on a ridge as the Quarry wildfire burns in the foothills near the Ken Caryl Ranch development Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, southwest of Littleton, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Young boys sit on a rock to watch as a helicopter lands on a nearby lake to collect water to drop on ridges as the Quarry wildfire burns in the foothills near the Ken Caryl Ranch development Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, southwest of Littleton, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

A helicopter heads in for a water drop as the Quarry wildfire burns in the foothills near the Ken Caryl Ranch development Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, southwest of Littleton, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are gearing up to take the stage for Tuesday night’s debate in Philadelphia, where they’ll fight to sway 2024 election voters on the biggest stage in U.S. politics.

The event, at 9 p.m. Eastern, will offer Americans their most detailed look at a campaign that’s dramatically changed since the last debate in June. In rapid fashion, President Joe Biden bowed out of the race after his disastrous performance, Trump survived an assassination attempt and bothsides chose their running mates.

Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the latest:

Four years ago, Kamala Harris and Mike Pence met in the 2020 vice presidential debate in what was mostly a civil, substantive debate. But a tiny insect ended up stealing more of its fair share of the spotlight.

Marc Short, who led Pence’s debate prep, still shakes his head thinking about the fly that landed on Pence’s head during the debate, a stark image of the dark insect set against Pence’s white hair.

“On the actual substance you we were very pleased with Pence’s answers back and forth in that debate,” Short said. Unfortunately, he added, “a lot of the after coverage was focused on the fly.”

Indeed, it became an immediate social media sensation, made its way into the ubiquitous takeaway analysis pieces that every major news outlet produces and was part of NBC’s Saturday Night Live “Cold Open” skit days later.

The lesson, Short said, is that candidates, no matter how much they prepare, cannot always control the conversation coming out of a debate.

“She just needs to be herself, and she will be fine,” South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn told reporters at a White House celebration for the South Carolina Gamecocks, the 2024 NCAA women’s basketball champs.

Jaime Harrison, the Democratic National Committee chairman, said he was confident Harris will show herself to be more presidential than former President Donald Trump.

“Listen, I think if the vice president is herself, she’s going to be fantastic,” said Harrison, another South Carolinian who attended the White House ceremony. “She’s going to be presidential, and we know Donald Trump is going to do what Donald Trump does.”

If he wins in November, Trump, who’s 78, will be the oldest person ever elected to the presidency. And a new Pew Research Center poll finds that about half of voters think his age will hurt his candidacy. Only 3% of voters think his age will help him, and the rest say it won’t make a difference.

The results are the opposite for Harris, who at 59 is nearly two decades younger than her opponent. About half say her age will help her, while only 3% say it will hurt her.

With Harris as the Democratic candidate, Trump may have lost an advantage over President Joe Biden – the perception that he’s more mentally prepared for the job. About 6 in 10 voters say the phrase “mentally sharp” describes Harris very or fairly well, while about half say that about Trump. Back in July, when Biden was still his opponent, about 6 in 10 voters said Trump was “mentally sharp,” while only about one-quarter said the same of Biden.

Harris’s candidacy is historic – if elected, she’d be the first woman president, as well as the first Asian American and first Black woman president. Voters are more likely to think those identities will help her than hurt her at the ballot box this fall, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center.

About 4 in 10 voters think Harris’s Asian and Black identity will help her in November, and a similar share think the same about her identity as a woman. They’re more likely to see her gender as a liability than her race: About 3 in 10 say the fact that Harris is a woman will hurt her in November, while about 3 in 10 say that about the fact that she is Asian and Black.

The voters who are most concerned that Harris’s race and gender will be a liability are her own supporters. About 4 in 10 Harris supporters, for instance, say the fact that Harris is a woman will hurt her with voters, compared to 16% of Trump supporters.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris will meet face-to-face for the first time in a highly-anticipated debate Tuesday night. The two presidential candidates describe the state of the country in starkly different terms. Trump often paints a dark picture centered around issues such as immigration and high inflation, while Harris focuses on optimism for the future, promising that “we’re not going back.”

The first debate of the 2024 election in June — at which President Joe Biden’s disastrous performance ultimately forced him from the race — featured multiple false and misleading claims from both candidates and it’s likely that Tuesday’s match-up will include much of the same.

▶ Read more about claims made by the candidates

And both of them plan to say why the Democrat would be better than Republican Donald Trump.

Anthony Scaramucci was briefly the Trump White House’s communications director, while Olivia Troye was a homeland security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence and was involved in Trump’s coronavirus task force. The Harris campaign said both will speak out against Trump before the debate starts.

In a form of political judo, the Harris campaign has been trying to use Trump’s former aides against him, trying to show that those who know him best see him as unfit to return to the White House.

This year’s presidential race is a genuine contest of ideas between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump — with clear differences on taxes, abortion, immigration, global alliances, climate change and democracy itself.

Since replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee, Harris has pledged to chart a new way forward even as she’s embraced many of his ideas. She wants middle class tax cuts, tax hikes on the wealthy and corporations, a restoration of abortion rights and a government that aggressively addresses climate change, among other stances.

Seeking a return to the White House, Trump wants to accomplish much of what he couldn’t do during a term that was sidetracked by the global pandemic. The Republican wants the extension and expansion of his 2017 tax cuts, a massive increase in tariffs, more support for fossil fuels and a greater concentration of government power in the White House.

The two candidates have spelled out their ideas in speeches, advertisements and other venues. Many of their proposals lack specifics, making it difficult to judge exactly how they would translate their intentions into law or pay for them.

▶ Read more about where the candidates stand on issues

With early voting fast approaching, the rhetoric by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has turned more ominous with a pledge to prosecute anyone who “cheats” in the election in the same way he believes they did in 2020, when he falsely claimed he won and attacked those who stood by their accurate vote tallies.

He also told a gathering of police officers last Friday that they should “watch for the voter fraud,” an apparent attempt to enlist law enforcement that would be legally dubious.

Trump has contended, without providing evidence, that he lost the 2020 election only because of cheating by Democrats, election officials and other, unspecified forces.

On Saturday, Trump promised that this year those who cheat “will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law” should he win in November. He said he was referencing everyone from election officials to attorneys, political staffers and donors.

▶ Read more about Trump’s rhetoric on the election

The debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump won’t have an audience, live microphones when candidates aren’t speaking, or written notes, according to rules ABC News, the host network, shared with both campaigns last month.

The parameters in place for the Tuesday night debate are essentially the same as they were for the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, a disastrous performance for the incumbent Democrat that fueled his exit from the campaign.

It's the only debate that’s been firmly scheduled and could be the only time voters see Harris and Trump go head to head before the November general election.

▶ Read more about the rules for the Trump-Harris debate

In this combination photo, Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., speaks during a debate, Oct. 7, 2020, in Salt Lake City, left, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during a debate, June 27, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo)

The motorcade of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris passes a billboard in support of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, ahead of the presidential debate with Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives on Air Force Two at Atlantic Aviation Philadelphia, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, near Philadelphia International Airport, ahead of the presidential debate with Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Signage at the media filing center ahead of tomorrow's presidential debate between Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)