The fast-moving Royal Gorge wildfire in Colorado has prompted the evacuation of at least 800 specialty needs prisoners including killers, rapists, and kidnappers, according to The Denver Post.
"We have medical and mental health, geriatric, and hospice inmates," said Alison Morgan, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections, to The Post. "They have walkers, oxygen tanks, canes and wheelchairs."
The state's Department of Corrections moved about 881 incapacitated convicts from Territorial Correctional Facility in the Cañon City area to Centennial Correctional Facility, a prison that has been abandoned since last year.
Responding to moving the prisoners to Centennial, Morgan said, "It was easy to bring those systems back up to the operational levels," the Cañon City Daily Record reported.
The last of the inmates were moved early Wednesday morning as billowing smoke and black ash fell on the transfer buses.
"This was done as a precautionary, preemptive operation so we could move in a methodical and organized manor," Morgan said to reporters. "You can't beat what we've done."
It was the first time in the Department's history that such a substantial transfer happened, and as a contingency measure the DOC patrol cars and other heavy artillery prison officers accompanied buses.
"I'm not aware of any mishaps," Morgan said to The Denver Post. "It was a run with military precision."
Almost 4,000 acres have been devastated because of the Colorado fires, forcing officials to close down the Arkansas River from Cañon City to Spike Buck.
Companies like the Black Hills Energy-Colorado Electric & Colorado Gas Company have ceased feeding electrical power to evacuated residents until it is deemed safe enough by authorities to return home, the Inquisitr reported.
"While we regret any inconvenience or potential disruption caused by this interruption of service," Susan Baily, Black Hills Energy general manager, said in a statement. "Maintaining the safety of our customers is our highest priority."
Watch amateur footage of the fire as it moves through Colorado:
© 2025 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
