Wild fire was whipped up by the 70 MPH winds yesterday in Jefferson County.

At this time over 5 square miles of land has burned. Several homes have been destroyed - though I don't have a count at this time. Over 1000 homes have been evacuated.

Scores of other homes in areas in the fire's path have been slated to be evacuated sometime today.

The fire is moving at roughly 5-8 mph to the NW.

Winds today are not going to be as bad as yesterday, but it is still windy.

150-200 fire fighters are on the ground. Yesterday tankers were prevented from dropping retardant on the fire by extremely high wind speeds so all fire suppression was accomplished by ground crews.

The fire is located about 25 miles SW of Denver, in the Conifer area.

The Pueblo area (40 miles south of Colorado Springs) reported as many as 9 small fires which have been extinguished.

It's going to be a rather wild ride this year....