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 .

When a 60,000-acre wildfire is breathing down the neck of a small northwestern Colorado town, the locals don’t freeze. The follow their first instinct — to jump into action to protect