Making slow but steady progress against a wildfire that has killed at least two people, authorities hoped for continued favorable weather and asked for patience from thousands of evacuees who fled encroaching flames that destroyed nearly 350 homes.
A second body was found Friday in the rubble of a home where another person was found dead earlier. Officials, who were searching each charred lot for more possible victims, have not yet released identifications. Police Chief Pete Carey said fewer than 10 people altogether were unaccounted for.
The 26-square-mile blaze â€" one of several wildfires burning across the West â€" was reported to be 25 percent contained - up from 15 percent Thursday.
Evacuation orders were lifted for some of the more than 30,000 people forced from their homes earlier this week, but restrictions remained on neighborhoods with the most damage.
"We're just pleading with people to have some patience while we work through this, this is a very stubborn situation we're dealing with," said Colorado Springs Fire Chief Richard Brown.
Colorado Springs police said they were swamped with calls from people asking when they could return to their homes.
There were plans to let people whose residences burned take weekend bus trips to the affected neighborhoods to take a look, but they would not be allowed to leave the vehicles.
AP
President Barack Obama talks with firefighters as he tours the Mountain Shadow neighborhood devastated by wildfires, Friday, June 29, 2012, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Close After growing explosively earlier in the week, the Colorado Springs fire gained no ground overnight, authorities reported Friday. And the weather was clear and mostly calm, a welcome break from the lightning and high wind that drove the flames.
Exhausted firefighters fresh off the front lines described the devastation in some neighborhoods and the challenges of battling such a huge blaze, now the most destructive in Colorado history.
"It looks like hell. I would imagine it felt like a nuclear bomb went off. There was fire everywhere. Everything had a square shape to it because it was foundations," said Rich Rexach, who had been working 12-hour days since Tuesday, when flames swept through neighborhoods in this city of more than 400,000 people 60 miles south of Denver.
President Barack Obama toured the stricken areas Friday after issuing a disaster declaration for Colorado that frees up federal funds. He thanked firefighters and other emergency workers, saying: "The country is grateful for your work. The country's got your back."
As residents waited anxiously to see what was left of their homes, police reported several burglaries in evacuated areas, along with break-ins of cars packed with evacuees' possessions outside hotels. Carey said Friday a person wearing protective fire gear in an evacuated area was arrested on charges of impersonating a firefighter and influencing a public official.
Community leaders began notifying residents Thursday that their homes were destroyed. Many lost almost everything.
"The blanket that was on my bed when I grew up, a bunch of things my mother had made," said Rick Spraycar, listing what he lost when his house in the hard-hit Mountain Shadows subdivision burned down. "It's hard to put it into words. Everything I owned. Memories."
For Ernie Storti the pain of knowing that his was one of a handful of homes spared in his neighborhood was hard.
"Our home was standing, and everything south of us was gone," he said as tears streamed down his face outside a Red Cross Shelter where he had met with insurance agents.
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