BURLINGTON — Melissa Meyer watches news reports of the wildfires in Colorado perhaps more keenly than others in the Tristate.

        Her husband, Ron, has spent nearly a week southwest of Denver on a U.S Forest Service command team coordinating firefighting efforts at one of three big Western wildfires.

Melissa Meyer of Burlington and children, Thomas, 5 (from left), Andrew, 7, and Elizabeth, 3, show a photo of Ron Meyer, who is helping battle wildfires. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        Mr. Meyer is stationed in Pike-San Isabel National Forest, where on Tuesday crews had contained by 70 percent a 137,000-acre fire that has destroyed at least 133 homes and cost more than $26 million to fight.

        “He tries to call, but with the time difference it's hard to catch him when he's free,” said Mrs. Meyer. “He tries to keep in contact as much as possible.”

        Mr. Meyer, who is employed by the Kentucky Division of Forestry, normally works with private landowners in the state.

        Kentucky's forestry division has sent 23 employees to help the U.S. Forest Service, including 21 firefighters who left Tuesday. Mr. Meyer is the only one from Northern Kentucky.

        One firefighter from Ohio also has been sent to help put out the three blazes devastating portions of Colorado and Arizona, officials said. President Bush on Tuesday declared another charred region near Show Low, Ariz., a disaster area. There, 375,000 acres, at least 390 homes and dozens of businesses have burned in a fire yet to be contained. A third fire near Durango, Colo., has burned 67,000 acres and at least 45 homes.

        “We have a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Forest Service that basically states when they need us, we'll come,” said Gwen Hot, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Division of Forestry.

        Mr. Meyer, who is working as a communications liaison in Colorado, left Thursday. His tenure is 14 days.

        In calls to his wife and three children in Burlington, Mr. Meyer has relayed the magnitude of the devastation.

        “The immensity of this fire has left an impression,” Mrs. Meyer said. “And dealing with the people that are out of their homes ... there's almost every day about 1,500 people inquiring about their homes.”

        The Associated Press contributed to this report. E-mail: daveck@fuse.net.
       

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