Reed and Kathleen Kelley were loading up some of their horses and preparing to leave their ranch southwest of Meeker, which was in the path of the Lee fire, when a team of local volunteer firefighters drove up in three trucks on Tuesday afternoon.

Multiple wildfires are burning on the Western Slope, forcing evacuations and darkening the sky across the state. With most of western Colorado under a high fire danger warning, hundreds of firefighters are working in sweltering conditions, with highs in the 90s and no rain in the forecast for the foreseeable future .