U.S. FIRE CLAIMS TWO AS OBAMA TOURS ZONE

Washington, June 30: A shocked US President Barack Obama on Friday toured “heartbroken” Colorado neighbourhoods torched by rampaging wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of homes and left two dead.

Crews are still searching for human remains in the ashes of homes destroyed by the Waldo Canyon Fire, which blazed into the outskirts of the state's second largest city Colorado Springs earlier this week.

The inferno has destroyed at least 346 houses and forced some 36,000 residents to evacuate, officials said. It is still threatening some 20,000 homes and 160 commercial buildings.

Obama praised the “courage and determination and professionalism” of firefighters. — AFP