GLENWOOD SPRINGS -- Under skies marked by a furious tangle of flames and smoke, eight wind-lashed fires consumed desert-dry terrain across the Front Range and Western Slope on Sunday.

From Grand Junction to Glenwood Springs to Trinidad to Colorado Springs to Lake George -- even to the concrete corridors of downtown Denver -- the fallout from the simultaneous blazes could be seen, felt and tasted.

"All of Colorado is burning today. It is a very, very serious situation," announced Gov. Bill Owens.