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" border="0" height="360" id="articleGalleryPhoto001" width="640"/>President Barack Obama tours fire damage with elected officials and firefighters in the Mountain Shadows residential neighborhood in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Friday, June 29. The massive fire has destroyed hundreds of homes and forced more than 36,000 people to flee.

Firefighters get ready to tackle the Waldo Canyon Fire on Friday.
Melissa Bowman, a CNN iReporter from Big Piney, Wyoming, captures the Fontenelle Fire close to her home as she waits for an evacuation notice.
A camp for firefighters is set up at Holmes Middle School in Colorado Springs on Thursday, June 28. The Waldo Canyon Fire has scorched more than 16,700 acres.
A partially burned home smolders Thursday in Colorado Springs.
The line where the Waldo Canyon Fire stopped moving east is seen from the air in Colorado Springs. Lower temperatures and lighter winds helped firefighters on Thursday in the battle against the fire.
An aerial view of a destroyed neighborhood in the aftermath of the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs.
The Denver Post." border="0" height="360" id="articleGalleryPhoto008" width="640"/>The Waldo Canyon fire spreads through a neighborhood in the hills above Colorado Springs on June 26. See more photos at The Denver Post.
Hazy smoke from the Waldo Canyon Fire looms behind the Air Force Academy stadium on Wednesday, June 27, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The fire expanded to 15,000 acres. More than 32,000 people have been evacuated.
Susan Custer and her husband, Gary Custer, watch the Waldo Canyon Fire on Wednesday.
At dawn on Tuesday, firefighters stir from their tents at a camp near Holmes Middle School.
Smoke billows from the Waldo Canyon Fire west of Colorado Springs on Tuesday.
Evacuees drive under a shroud of smoke from the Waldo Canyon Fire on Tuesday.
J'Amie Sirvaitis of Colorado Springs watches the Waldo Canyon Fire after winds pushed the fire into the Mountain Shadows neighborhood in Colorado Springs on Tuesday.
Residents of Colorado Springs watch as the Waldo Canyon Fire burns a home in the Mountain Shadows neighborhood on Tuesday.
Smoke from the Waldo Canyon Fire engulfs Interstate 25 north of Colorado Springs, Colorado, as the blaze burns out of control Tuesday.
A large plume of smoke from the Waldo Canyon Fire fills the sky west of Colorado Springs on Tuesday.
Jan Stone, right, comforts Angela Morgan as smoke from the Waldo Canyon Fire pours over the Mountain Shadows neighborhood of Colorado Springs on Tuesday.
A portion of the Waldo Canyon Fire moves across a hillside above a subdivision west of Colorado Springs on Tuesday.
Colorado State Patrol and Colorado Department of Transportation personnel set up a roadblock west of Manitou Springs, Colorado, on Monday, June 25.
A portion of the Waldo Canyon fire burns out of control in the hills west of Manitou Springs on Monday.
Trees burn on a ridge above Cedar Heights in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Sunday, June 24.
Greg and Karen Bodine help her father, Duane Schormann, left, load his animals into a trailer near Colorado Springs as they evacuate the area Sunday.
The High Park Fire, which was 45% contained as of Saturday, has destroyed 191 homes west of Fort Collins.
The High Park Fire rages through the forest west of Fort Collins, Colorado, on Tuesday, June 19.
Local resident Dwayne Crawford looks out at the High Park Fire from his home west of Fort Collins on Tuesday, June 19.
A heavy air tanker drops fire retardant on the blaze June 19. Its growth potential was "extreme," according to authorities.
Flames scorched this area outside of Fort Collins where the High Park Fire has burned out.
A helicopter drops water over the Wood Hollow Fire north of Fairview, Utah, on Tuesday.
A wall of fire makes its way down a hillside toward a farm north of Fairview, Utah, on Tuesday. The Wood Hollow Fire, one of at least three wildfires burning in Utah, has grown to nearly 39,000 acres.
Smoldering earth and damage from the Dump Fire, which began June 21, can be seen outside a plant near Saratoga Springs, Utah, on Saturday, June 23.
Burned-out terrain from the Dump Fire fills a hillside near Saratoga Springs, Utah on Saturday.
The smoke plume from a fire in the Los Padres National Forest, which began on June 16, billows into the sky. The fire burned more than 500 acres before it was contained.
Firefighters watch as the wildfire spreads throught the Los Padres National Forest on June 16. Another fire in San Diego County has burned almost 1000 acres leading to 150 homes being evacuated.
A helicopter makes a water drop on the wildfire in Los Padres National Forest on June 16.
The Poco Fire from Rim Vista in the Tonto National Forest in Arizona ignited on June 14 and spread to 4,900 acres.
An airplane drops retardant on the 257 Fire near Superior, Arizona, on June 14. The blaze was about 85% contained at a size of more than 2,800 acres.
Firefighters battle the Little Bear Fire in the Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico on June 14. The Little Bear Fire had burned more than 40,000 acres and was still spreading.
The Little Bear Fire spreads across a road in the Lincoln National Forest on June 13.
Firefighters in New Mexico struggle on June 14 to contain the Little Bear blaze, which has destroyed more than 250 structures.
here, but please stay safe." border="0" height="360" id="articleGalleryPhoto0041" width="640"/>This portion of landscape was charred by the Little Bear Fire in New Mexico on June 14. Are wildfires blazing near you? Share photos and videos with iReport here, but please stay safe.




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  • The so-called Waldo Canyon Fire is 25% percent contained, InciWeb says
  • The fire has destroyed nearly 350 homes and damaged at least two dozen more, officials say
  • Authorities are allowing some of the 32,000 evacuated to return home
  • A bus tour is scheduled to begin Sunday for about 4,000 people displaced by the fire



Are wildfires blazing near you? Share photos and videos with iReport, but please stay safe.
(CNN) -- As firefighters worked to gain the upper hand Saturday on a massive wildfire outside Colorado Springs that forced thousands to flee, the toll mounted: Nearly 350 homes destroyed, two dozen more damaged and two people dead.
Officials warned the numbers are likely to increase as authorities get their first look at some of the harder hit areas, even as firefighters worked to contain the wildfire that continued to pose a threat to more than 20,000 homes and 160 businesses.
The so-called Waldo Canyon Fire has scorched more than 17,000 acres -- close to 27 square miles -- and brought fear, anxiety and grief to Colorado Springs, the state's second-largest city that was, until a few days ago, happily situated in the valley below picturesque Pikes Peak.
It was 25% contained by early Saturday morning, according to InciWeb, a multi-agency fire response website.
"We're very hopeful. It seems to be moving out of the area," Steve Cox, assistant to the Colorado Springs mayor, told CNN affiliate KKTV.
"But it is a long process. It's going to take us a long time to recover from this."
Hundreds of residents were allowed to begin returning home late Friday after authorities lifted evacuation orders in some areas. Thousands more waited for word when they would be able to go home.
Bus tours, meanwhile, were scheduled to begin Sunday for about 4,000 people whose neighborhoods were hit by the fire, Cox said.
"You'll be able to look at your property. You're not going to be able to get out and walk around the property because we're still in an active fire situation," he said.
Barry Boulier was among the more than 36,000 forced to evacuate when 65 mph winds on Tuesday whipped the blaze into a firestorm that spewed ash and smoke "like a scene out of the movie Dante's Peak."
"It was ash and smoke so thick you could not see, and breathing was difficult," Boulier said in a CNN iReport posted Friday. "It happened so fast -- our only thought was leave NOW."
Boulier and his wife have been staying with family since they fled, though they have since learned their home was spared after firefighters stopped its advance in their backyard.
His neighbors, though, are not so lucky. Most of their houses, he said, have been burned.
"I'm kind of dreading returning," he said.
President Barack Obama declared Colorado a disaster area to allow federal dollars to help fight the Waldo Canyon Fire as well the High Park Fire, which has burned more than 87,000 acres and destroyed more than 200 homes in northern Colorado since it began on June 9.
"We have been putting everything we have into trying to deal with what is one of the worst fires we've seen here in Colorado," said Obama, who arrived in Colorado Springs on Friday to get a first-hand look at the devastation.
"We've still got a lot more work to do."
The U.S. Forest Service has warned it could be mid-July before the fire is fully under control.
A second death was announced Friday by Colorado Springs Police Chief Pete Carey, whose voice broke as he told reporters the body was found in the same gutted home where the first was discovered late Thursday.
Police spokeswoman Barbara Miller told CNN the remains were believed to be those of a couple reported missing by family members.
Carey and Miller did not immediately identify the couple.
Authorities, meanwhile, have begun a search for other possible victims after receiving telephone calls "from people who say they haven't heard from people," Miller told KKTV.
Colorado Springs authorities also are asking those who refused to evacuate to contact authorities with their whereabouts.
The cause of the fire, which has cost more than $6.9 million to fight, according to estimates posted on InciWeb, is still under investigation. The Denver office of the FBI joined agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, along with local authorities, in investigating reports that an arsonist may be responsible.
The wildfire is one of many fires burning in the West right now -- including in Idaho, Wyoming and Utah -- that are straining firefighting resources.
But the effort to tame the flames in Colorado got a boost Friday from the military, which is deploying eight of the U.S. Forest Service's Modular Airborne Firefighting Systems aboard C-130 aircraft. The systems will drop retardant on the Waldo Canyon Fire as well as other wildfires still burning in Colorado.
A battalion of U.S. Army troops from Fort Carson, Colorado, also began training Friday to fight wildfires. More than 500 troops are undergoing three days of training, according to Lt. Col. Steven Wollman, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division headquartered at the base just south of Colorado Springs.
A decision has not been made whether to send the troops into the Waldo Canyon Fire. The U.S. Forest Service would have to make a specific request for the troops to be sent in, after they complete the training.
Colorado is also getting some help from California, a state all too familiar with rampant wildfire destruction. Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday directed the California National Guard to lend Colorado two C-130J airplanes, equipped with the Modular Airborne Firefighting System II. About 30 crew members will go east with the aircraft.
CNN's Moni Basu, Greg Morrison and Dana Ford contributed to this report.