好英语网科罗拉多州山火继续肆虐
COLORADO SPRINGS — With wind and heat giving it new strength, the furious wildfire that has been burning in the foothills around Colorado’s second-largest city doubled in size by Wednesday, first roaring past containment lines and forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee, chased by billowing smoke, blowing ash and the fear that their homes might be burned to the ground.
科罗拉多斯普林斯——科罗拉多州第二大城市周边的山林大火持续肆虐。到周三为止，因受大风和高温天气影响，过火面积翻倍。火势首次蔓延过了遏制线，迫使成千上万的居民在滚滚浓烟和漫天灰烬中逃离居所，与此同时他们还要担心自己的家园可能会化为灰烬。
Some 26,000 people were forced to evacuate late Tuesday when the Waldo Canyon fire, as the blaze is known, exploded without warning — just a day after officials reported making progress on it.
此次大火被称为沃尔多峡谷大火，它在毫无预警的情况下发生火爆，致使26000人在周二晚些时候被迫撤离，这距官方声称火势已经得到控制仅隔一天。
周二，沃尔多峡谷大火产生的火焰侵袭科罗拉多斯普林斯附近的房屋和土地。
The fire started on Saturday, and by Wednesday had burned 24 square miles and destroyed an unknown number of homes, officials said at a news conference here.
官员在新闻发布会上说，大火始于周六，截至周三时，已经延烧24平方英里的山林，受损房屋数量不明。
“It was a pretty tough day for the city,” said Jerri Marr the forest supervisor for the Pike and San Isabel National Forests, referring to the fire’s rapid growth. “A pretty tough day for the forest and a pretty tough day for everyone. This fire is going to be going on for a long time.”
“对这个城市来说这是段非常难熬的日子，”派克和圣伊莎贝尔国家森林公园林务巡查员杰里·马尔（Jerri Marr）在谈到迅猛蔓延的火势时说，“今天对森林来说是很糟糕的一天，对每个人来说也很难熬。大火还会持续很长时间。”
A seemingly unending heat wave and windy conditions continued to complicate firefighting efforts on Wednesday, though a cloud cover and light moisture seemed a slight improvement over previous days. Still, an eerie pall of smoke hung over virtually the entire city, shrouding the spine of mountains that usually tower over Colorado Springs.
似乎永无休止的高温热浪和大风天气，使得周三的灭火行动难上加难，尽管与前几天相比，天空中的云层和较为潮湿的空气对控制火势有所帮助。但现在几乎整个城市上空都弥漫着可怕的烟雾，那些平时耸立于科罗拉多斯普林斯市周边的山脉也被覆盖其中。
A thousand firefighters are now battling the blaze, one of many burning across the West. More than half of the nation’s federal wildfire fighting resources are now in Colorado, which has been wrestling with its worst fire season in a decade, powered by dry conditions and heat.
上千名消防员正在与这场大火做斗争。但这场火只是西部众多大火之中的一场。超过一半的联邦野火消防力量都聚集在科罗拉多州。由于天气干燥，气温过高，该州遭遇了十年来最严重的野火季。
In the hills just west of Boulder, a fire broke out Tuesday and burned just a few miles from the city limits, prompting about two dozen evacuations. Thousands more residents were put on pre-evacuation notice in case the blaze, about 230 acres, broke toward the city. Late Wednesday, the notices were lifted.
博尔德西部的山区周二爆发大火，大火蔓延至城市边缘几英里以内，引发了约24次撤离活动。数千名居民被通知做好撤离准备以防大火侵袭该城。这里的大火已经覆盖了230英亩土地。周三晚些时候，警告升级。
Several intense thunderstorms rolled through the area Wednesday, and lightning strikes set off several spot fires, said Dan Rowland, a spokesman for the Boulder Office of Emergency Management.
博尔德应急管理办公室发言人丹·罗兰（Dan Rowland)说，几次强暴雨周三席卷该了地区，雷电引发几处火情。
The Waldo Canyon fire, though, remained the most worrisome, and Tuesday’s blowup sent residents scrambling — choking roads with traffic and briefly closing a section of Interstate 25. About 32,000 people have been evacuated, including from the United States Air Force Academy, which is set to welcome a new class of cadets this week. By Wednesday afternoon, heavy wind spit gusts of ash around the city.
沃尔多峡谷大火的形势依然最为严峻，周二的山火大爆发也使得居民匆忙撤离——造成交通拥堵，以至于25号州际公路的一个路段被暂时关闭。约32000人进行了撤离，其中包括美国空军学院的成员。该学院原计划这周迎接新学员。至周三下午，狂风席卷烟灰横扫整个城市。
“I hate wind. I wish it would go away,” said Rich Harvey, incident commander for the fire at a news conference late Wednesday. “The wind is obviously kicking up and causing us problems out there.”
“我讨厌大风。我希望它赶快停下来，” 事故指挥员里奇·哈维（Rich Harvey)在 周三晚些时候的新闻发布会上说。“很明显，风越来越大了，也给我们的工作带来困难。”
Mr. Harvey said the fire, which is only 5 percent contained, had moved with such speed and ferocity at one point that it had managed to jump about a half-mile across a reservoir. But he said firefighters were learning some of the tricks of this particular fire, which has liked to run down the foothills behind the city.
哈维说只有5%的火势得到控制。火势非常迅猛，火焰一度成功地越过了一个宽近一公里的水库，继续蔓延。但是他说消防员也逐渐掌握了控制这次大火的一些特点，例如此次火势的趋势是在城市后方的小山向山下蔓延。
“You can fool us once, maybe, but not twice,” he said. “We were prepared for it, but it moved astronomically fast. Today, we are prepared for astronomically fast.”
“或许，你可以愚弄我们一次，但不会有第二次，”他说。“我们已经做好准备了，但是火势扩散超级之快，今天，我们已经为超级之快做好了准备。”
At Cheyenne Mountain High School, where a Red Cross evacuation center was set up, a crowd of displaced residents milled about anxiously on Wednesday afternoon, waiting for word of their homes. Lindsey Frederick was in the area with her husband and three children and their R.V. while visiting a friend.
周三下午，一群撤离家园的居民在夏延山高中设置的红十字疏散中心里焦虑的徘徊着，等待有关自己房屋的消息。起火时，林赛·弗雷迪里克（Lindsey Frederick ）和她的丈夫、孩子开着房车来到这里拜访朋友。
As the fire bore down on the neighborhood where they were staying, Ms. Frederick and her children were given 20 minutes to pack up, not enough to gather everything. Her husband, who had traveled into Colorado Springs that day, was forced to evacuate to a different shelter. She and the children left the R.V. behind to go to the shelter where he was staying.
当火势蔓延至他们的街区时，林赛和她的孩子只有20分钟时间打包，没时间收拾所有东西。她的丈夫那天去了科罗拉多斯普林斯，被迫撤往另外一个避难中心。她和孩子放弃汽车来到了她丈夫所在的避难中心。
“The possessions are possessions,” Ms. Frederick said. “I just wanted us all to be together.”
“财产只是身外之物，”弗雷迪里克女士说。“我只想全家团聚在一起。”
President Obama planned to survey the damage on Friday.
奥巴马总统计划在周五视察受损情况。