Human remains found in house destroyed by Colorado wildfire

DENVER — Human remains have been found in a home burned by a Colorado wildfire, authorities said Wednesday, as nearly 100 large fires rage across the western U.S.

The body was discovered in one of five homes that burned about a mile (1.6 kilometers) north of Lyons, Colorado, Boulder County Sheriff Curtis Johnson said. He said detectives were assisting with the investigation into the death but declined to provide further details.

The fire started Tuesday afternoon and had burned about two square miles (five square kilometers) by Wednesday morning. It was listed as zero percent contained in a federal wildfire report Wednesday, which said 150 crews were battling the blaze.

It was one of several large fires burning across Colorado’s Front Range. A blaze on the edge of the Denver metropolitan area, west of the town of Conifer, forced the evacuation of about 575 homes Tuesday night. That fire was less than a square mile (2.5 square kilometers) in size as of Tuesday night. Jefferson County officials said resources were stretched thin and they had not yet contained the fire.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, nearly 28,000 firefighters were battling 95 major blazes across the U.S.

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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.