Fatal Colorado Wildfire Still Uncontained

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The Lower North Fork Fire, which has killed at least two people, was still uncontained this afternoon, officials said.

The fire has burned 4,500 acres and destroyed 23 homes, Jacki Kelley, a Jefferson County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman, said at a news conference. She said 2,500 homes had been evacuated and hundreds of other people could be asked to leave their homes tonight if conditions worsened.

Jefferson county officials said earlier that Sam Lamar Lucas, 77, and his wife Linda M. Lucas, 76, were killed in the fire.

The couple were found in a home in an area within the fire zone that remains accessible only to fire officials. Authorities are searching for a third person who is unaccounted for in the same area.

Kelley said a national Type 1 firefighting team will arrive tonight qnd take over command of the operation tomorrow. They team will be housed at Conifer High School, and evacuees will relocate to West Jefferson Middlie School.

Today, about 200 firefighters have failed to gain any containment on the fire, Kelley said. Tomorrow, the effort will grow to 400, with crews coming in from across the West.

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