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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 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 June 24.
The High Park Fire, which was 45% contained as of June 23, has destroyed 191 homes west of Fort Collins.
The High Park Fire rages through the forest west of Fort Collins, Colorado, on June 19.
Local resident Dwayne Crawford looks out at the High Park Fire from his home west of Fort Collins on 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, June 19.
A helicopter drops water over the Wood Hollow Fire north of Fairview, Utah, on Tuesday, June 26
A wall of fire makes its way down a hillside toward a farm north of Fairview, Utah, on Tuesday, June 26. 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, June 23.




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  • NEW: The so-called Waldo Canyon Fire is 30% percent contained
  • The fire has destroyed nearly 350 homes and damaged at least two dozen more, officials say
  • Authorities are allowing some of the 32,000 people evacuated to return home
  • A bus tour is planned 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) -- Nicole Frye watered the wooden roof of the house where she'd lived for 18 years. Then she got in her car and captured her own evacuation with a video camera.
Watch Frye's evacuation
All around her, the sky glowed orange from the towering flames that had roared down the mountain and into western subdivisions of Colorado Springs.
"Oh my God," she sobbed. "We gotta get out of here."
She knew her neighborhood would never be the same.
"So I wanted to make sure I had at least a memory of something that was remaining," she said.
Reaction: Monster fire terrorizes a Colorado city
She wanted a memory, too, of Colorado's most destructive fire, which, a week after igniting, has consumed nearly 350 homes, damaged two dozen more and killed two people.

Breathtaking Colorado wildfire pictures

Helping pets on the run from wildfires

U.S. Air Force fighting fires
Firefighters battled the blaze again Saturday, hoping to prevent the toll from mounting further. But authorities feared the numbers will probably increase as they get their first look at some of the harder hit areas.
Firefighters, aided by helicopters, air tankers and military planes dropping water and retardant, fought to contain the inferno, still threatening 20,000 homes and 160 businesses.
Colorado National Guard troops will deploy Saturday night to assist local law enforcement officers.
Already the 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 30% contained by early Saturday morning, said incident commander Rich Harvey.
In responses to Colorado Springs fire, a distinctly evangelical tone
Steve Cox, assistant to the Colorado Springs mayor, said the city remains hopeful.
"But it is a long process," he told CNN affiliate KKTV. "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 mandatory evacuation orders in some areas.
Thousands more waited for word when they would be able to go home.
And others, like Frye, will have to stay with friends, family or in hotel rooms. She learned her house was gone. She has not returned yet but seen the devastation in aerial photographs.

Obama praises Colorado firefighters

Family sees home burning on front page

High winds fueling Colorado wildfire
The city has organized bus tours for about 4,000 people whose neighborhoods were charred.
"You'll be able to look at your property," Cox said. "You're not going to be able to get out and walk around the property because we're still in an active fire situation."
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.' "
Obama tours site of deadly fire in Colorado
It was so thick, that he couldn't see or breathe, he said on CNN iReport.
"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.
iReporters share their harrowing views of the raging wildfires
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 toured 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.
New app tracks Colorado wildfires
Police spokeswoman Barbara Miller told CNN the remains were believed to be those of a couple reported missing by family members.
Police did not identify the couple.
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. Authorities are 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.
Help for wildfire evacuees and first responders
CNN's Greg Morrison and Dana Ford contributed to this report.