3 firefighters killed battling Colorado wildfires near Utah border

Three federal firefighters were killed and two more were injured in a burnover near the Colorado-Utah border as fast-moving fires in Mesa County turned deadly under punishing heat and wind. The crew had been assigned to the Knowles and Gore fires, which had merged into the Snyder Fire, and was forced to deploy emergency shelters when the flames overran their position.

The firefighters died Saturday, June 27, 2026, while working in western Colorado. By Sunday, the Snyder Fire had burned about 44 square miles. Wildfire conditions remained critical across the Southwest, and rapid fire growth was likely in the Four Corners region.

The city hit 93 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday as wind gusts reached 44 mph, while Mesa County officials asked for evacuations in the fire’s potential path and the Bureau of Land Management closed nearby public lands.

The U.S. Department of the Interior said the five federal firefighters were part of an interagency response and that the two survivors were being treated for burn injuries. Names of the dead were being withheld pending family notifications. Governor Jared Polis mourned the deaths Sunday and authorized the Colorado National Guard for extraction efforts in response to the Snyder Fire.

The U.S. Forest Service raised the National Wildland Fire Preparedness Level to 3 on Friday, June 19, at 7:30 a.m. Mountain Time, and the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, created earlier in 2026 to streamline firefighting on public lands, was operating in a season of hot, dry and windy weather that had already driven fires across Colorado, Utah and southwest Utah, including the Cottonwood Fire, which grew rapidly and damaged part of a ski resort.