ORDWAY — A fire in Ordway that forced the town’s evacuation Tuesday night is declared contained as of 4:30 today.
The grass fire, which consumed more than 8,900 acres and claimed two lives, reached the town limits Tuesday afternoon, filling the air with soot and embers.
Two volunteer firefighters were killed when a bridge damaged by flames collapsed under their fire truck.
Terry DeVore, 30, and John Schwartz, Jr., 38 were members of the Olney Springs Volunteer Fire Department.
More than 1,100 people were evacuated to Sugar City, Crowley, Rocky Ford and La Junta, said Polly White, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Division of Emergency Management. About 40 people spent the night at shelters, while others stayed with family and friends.
Officials are now assessing when it will be safe for evacuees to return home.
Eight homes in town were destroyed, along with 16 outside the town limits. Numerous sheds and other buildings also were destroyed.
The fire burned a bridge, forcing the closure of Colorado 96 between Crowley and Ordway. Colorado 71 also was closed.
“It was like a tornado,” said David Montes, 44, of Ordway. “Unfortunately, we didn’t have the equipment or manpower to help contain the fire. There were people with garden hoses trying to protect their property.”
Montes said the fire could be seen for miles. “The flames were just towering.”
The fire approached from the southwest and moved to the northeast. It burned down “The Buckshot,” a heavy-equipment operation that had been vacant for years.
Firefighters were trying to battle the flames until 3:30 in the morning. Police officers and sheriff’s deputies drove slowly up and down streets to ensure that no homes were looted.
Montes took his children to his parents’ home in Fowler. He stayed in his home downtown.
Residents were allowed back to their homes about 1 p.m. today.
The Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility, 6 miles east of Ordway, was put on modified lockdown as some staff members went to be with their families, said Katherine Sanguinetti, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections.
Gov. Bill Ritter declared a state of emergency, freeing up state resources to help fight the Ordway fire. The state requested federal assistance, as well, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved funding to pay 75 percent of the state’s eligible firefighting costs.
Thirty-five separate agencies have been working the fire.
Pueblo Animal Control also is in town addressing the needs of four-legged residents.
The Crowley County Commissioners are being inundated with offers of help. They say that cash is the biggest help, but if people want to donate items, they should call 719-267-5555, extension 2, before bringing anything into town so the generosity can be directed where it is needed most.
For cash donations, they have set up a fund. Make checks payable to the Crowley County Community Foundation and mail them care of First National Bank of Ordway, PO Box 278, Ordway, CO 81063.
White said the blaze started between 2 and 3 p.m. Tuesday but that the cause hadn’t yet been determined. Weather conditions may have helped spread the blaze, as temperatures were in the 50s with light winds blowing.
The two men who died worked at the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility, located just outside of Ordway.
Crowley County Coroner Karen Tomky said today that DeVore and Schwartz died instantly when their truck fell into the ravine at about 4 p.m. Tuesday.
The scene was chaos, she said. Power lines were down, sand was blowing everywhere and thick smoke obscured visibility.
A motorist in a pickup truck had been traveling east along Colorado 96 where the fire was burning very hot and very fast in a ditch under the roadway. The fire burned the bridge from underneath, and the pickup fell into the ravine. The driver escaped.
The truck from the Olney Springs Volunteer Fire Department was right behind the pickup and also fell in.
CDOT spokesperson Stacy Stegman said the bridge that collapsed was a 40-foot-long, two-lane timber bridge that had been built in 1937.
The bridge, with an asphalt roadway and metal railings that melted, was part of Colorado 96 and located 2 miles west of Colorado 71.
“The bridge was structurally sound,” she said. “It was a wooden bridge that burned.”
DeVore had been with the fire department for 10 years, and Schwartz had joined recently, said Kevin Klein, director of the Colorado Division of Fire Safety.
He called the fire “fast, dangerous and deadly.”
DeVore had worked for the Department of Corrections since December 2004 and Schwartz since December 2007, the DOC said in a news release.
“Not only did these two fine men serve the public by upholding safety and security in their daily jobs, but they further served their communities by volunteering,” Ari Zavaras, executive director of the Department of Corrections, said in a statement. “That they paid the ultimate price is a tragedy.”
Staff writer Mike McPhee contributed to this report.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
