A growing swath of wildfires in western United States threatens to damper holiday plans as park rangers and fire officials across the region have greatly curtailed accessibility to National Parks and campgrounds ahead of the Independence Day holiday.  In the Colorado mountains, a wildfire destroyed more than 100 homes, while blazes across the parched U.S. West kept hundreds of other homes under evacuation

orders. Late Monday, a fire near Fort Garland, about 205 miles southwest of Denver, had destroyed 104 homes in a mountain housing development.  The so-called Spring Creek fire is one of six large wildfires burning in Colorado. While investigators believe it was started by a spark from a fire pit, other fires were started by lightning. READ MORE