©Pueblo County Sheriff

A wildfire that sparked in Custer County on Monday morning has blown up to 25,000 acres, fueled by winds gusting to 100 mph that have grounded any chance for air support, officials said. The Aspen Acres fire, burning near Rye and spreading into Pueblo County, was the latest dangerous fire in a series that ignited across parched southern Colorado and the Western Slope amid extreme heat and gusty winds. Because of the high winds, firefighters could not attack the fire from above, the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office said Monday evening, saying an “unspecified number of structures” were damaged by the fire. …The entire town of Beulah was ordered to evacuate at 9:15 a.m. Monday, following an earlier evacuation order for residents near the Aspen Acres neighborhood. Two fires are burning in the area, one near the subdivision along Highway 165 and another near Lake Isabel, according to the Custer County Sheriff’s Office.