A person has been killed in one of several wildfires threatening heavily populated areas of the Colorado foothills, authorities said on Wednesday. A body was discovered in a home about 1 mile north of Lyons, Colorado, according to the Boulder county sheriff. He said that detectives were assisting the investigation into the death, but declined to provide further details. There are nearly 100 active wildfires burning in the west, including a massive wildfire in California that has grown swiftly in recent days to become the fifth-largest in state history. In Colorado, a wildfire near the city of Loveland in the Rockies grew to more than 5,000 acres (2,023 hectares) on Tuesday evening as more homes were placed under mandatory evacuation orders and a looming column of smoke could be seen for miles around.The fatality is one of several reported in recent weeks as the US wildfire season kicked into high gear.