A firefighter works a burnout operation on the north flank of the Fontenelle Fire outside Big Piney, Wyoming, on Wednesday, July 4. More than 800 firefighters are working 15-hour shifts battling the fire that has exceeded 56,000 acres, according to fire information services.
(CNN) -- It was like a scene from a big-budget Hollywood disaster movie -- a Godzilla of a fire roaring down the mountain, straight toward Brandon Hanson's Colorado Springs neighborhood.
Winds gusting at 65 mph pushed the fire over a ridge and sent it roaring into the city. Suddenly, a blaze in the mountains threatened to consume homes and businesses and change lives.
Hanson, 29, snapped a photo from his driveway of the thick plumes of smoke, some spiking as high as 20,000 feet, and sent it in to CNN iReport.
He'd just moved to Colorado Springs in April with his wife, Maria. Now their new house, their new life, was in peril.
"It's a lot worse than we thought," he ran in and told Maria.
Hanson packed up his Nissan Rogue. Paperwork, passports, pictures. And baby things for Xavier, their 1-month-old son.
Every hotel room in Colorado Springs was already occupied, so he kept driving south on Interstate 25 to Pueblo.
Wednesday, the Waldo Canyon Fire had doubled in size and was only 5% contained.
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The Hansons scoured through photos posted on online news sites trying see their house. Maria drew an arrow on a photograph showing their neighborhood, flames devouring houses everywhere.
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"Our home," it said in white lettering. They still could not tell if they had been spared.
The fire, fueled by high winds and hot, arid weather conditions, could be raging for some time to come. All the Hansons can do now is wait.
They are not alone. The fire has forced about 36,000 people to evacuate their homes.
One of them, Mindy Levinson, was forced to leave her apartment Tuesday, accompanied by her young son. She regrets she didn't take photos and other mementos.
"It was like Armageddon. You couldn't see anything but dark smoke and glowing red all around you," Levinson told CNN's "AC360."
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Levinson said she doesn't believe her apartment has been affected.
The curtain of flame was moving so fast that some people just had minutes to leave. At moments like that, you realize what's important. What to keep with you.
For Scott Deed, it was the red, white and blue fluttering outside his house.
"This flag is my son's. I lost him in Iraq. I want to make sure I take that down," he told CNN affiliate KCNC.
Patrick Sobecki, 18, didn't have much time to think about what to take with him.
He had been sleeping after taking Percocet to dull the pain of having all four wisdom teeth pulled Tuesday morning.
"That's just one more thing I am having to deal with in the middle of all this," he said.
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When his parents roused him from slumber, Sobecki grabbed his MacBook Pro laptop and a World War I book published in 1920. His grandfather gave it to him.
The family fled the Peregrine neighborhood in northwest Colorado Springs on a two-lane road that quickly turned into a parking lot. About 7,000 people were trying to get out the same way.
Sobecki said it took two hours to travel four miles. They found refuge at a friend's house on the east side of town, away from the fire.
Sobecki was born and raised in Colorado Springs, and he'd seen fires before. But none like this. None that blazed into the city.
He thought about Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper's words that it looked like nothing short of a full-scale military invasion.
"That is Colorado Springs, the city I was born and raised in, the city that is at war with nature," Sobecki said.
Wednesday, Sobecki's family, like the Hansons, checked online sites and Facebook, anxious to know what happened to their homes.
Mark Galley wondered whether he would see his house again in the Mount Shadows neighborhood. He wondered what had happened to his neighbors.
It was raining ash, and the smoke blanket hung so heavy Galley couldn't even see across the street.
It was surreal, he told CNN affiliate KUSA. It was scary.
Becky Schormann made a pile at the front door of things to take with her.
But she couldn't take everything. The fishing boat parked under her deck. The antique dishes from her grandparents. Her antique doll collection -- save one, the oldest one she owned.
"I keep telling myself it's going to be OK," she said.
For Russ Wolfe, it's going to take a long time for it to be OK.
Wolfe founded the Flying W Ranch more than 60 years ago, building it into a regional tourist draw. It served chuckwagon suppers and provided Western-style entertainment.
Wednesday, Wolfe had nothing left.
"With much sadness we have to report that the Flying W Ranch as well as several homes in the Mountain Shadows area has in fact been burned to the ground," the website said. "We ask that in this sad time that you remember the Flying W and the Wolfe family who has owned and operated the Flying W Ranch since 1953.
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"If you have made an online reservation or a deposit your money will be refunded at a later date when we have had a chance to gather our thoughts," the website said. "We ask that you pray for all the families within the area and assure you we will rebuild."
It will be another good, clean family show, Wolfe said.
Jenny Stafford, whose husband is deployed, fled her Colorado Springs home with her two young children and her cat Tuesday afternoon.
"It was like nothing we have ever seen before in our life," she told CNN. "We turned back to look, the flames were coming over the hill. Everything looked like it was on fire, smoke everywhere."
Meanwhile, the temperatures soared again Wednesday and the air was acrid with the smell of everything burning.
Filmmaker Joshua Keffer closed his windows, even though he has no air conditioning, and kept working at home. People were still trying to go on with life, as though that were possible.
Keffer was someone who marveled at the visual, in awe of the images of the angry fire.
"It was stunning to look at," he said.
Especially at night, when the embers glowed hot orange against the blackness of the sky.
But the truth quickly marred the images and tore Keffer apart.
It wasn't just trees anymore. It was homes. It wasn't a fire somewhere out there anymore. The flames were among the people, in their city.
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Trees smolder and burn on the north flank of the Fontenelle Fire. The crews are working and sleeping close to the fire in an effort to contain it.
Firefighter Ryan Christian sits with his crew from Alaska before heading out to fight the Fontenelle Fire outside Big Piney. The blaze, burning in dead and thick stands of timber, started on June 24 and is 15% contained.
Firefighter Alex Abols monitors fire on the north flank of the Fontenelle Fire outside Big Piney. Record fire danger and long stretches of the red flag warning days have made it challenging to control.
A utilities worker walks past the skeleton of a vehicle on Monday, July 2, while searching for gas leaks in a Colorado Springs community ravaged by the Waldo Canyon Fire.
An American flag waves Monday in front of a house leveled by the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado Springs. Residents began returnning to the area on Sunday after the fire forced thousands of people from their homes.
The words "We Will Rebuild" are seen written on the sidewalk in front of a house in Colorado Springs that was destroyed by the fire.
Fire-destroyed homes are seen in the Mountain Shadows neighborhood in Colorado Springs, where hundreds of residents were given an eight-hour window to visit their properties on Sunday, July 1.
A jogger on Sunday looks out over neighborhoods in Colorado Springs that were evacuated due to the Waldo Canyon Fire. The massive fire has destroyed hundreds of homes and forced more than 32,000 people to flee.
Frank Baker visits the remains of his brother's home in Bellvue, Colorado, on Saturday, June 30. The house was burned to the ground in the High Park Fire.
Homes destroyed by the Waldo Canyon Fire are seen from the air in a Colorado Springs neighborhood on Saturday.
Damaged cars line the curb in front of ruined houses in Colorado Springs.
The line of fire damage is clearly visible in this Colorado Springs neighborhood.
Smoke billows at sunrise from part of the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs.
One home stands surrounded by others destroyed by the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs on Saturday.
Homes burned to the ground by the Waldo Canyon fire are seen in a neighborhood in Colorado Springs on Saturday.
The fire, which has burned more than 15,000 acres, began spreading to the southwestern corner of the Air Force Academy in the early morning, causing base officials to evacuate residents.
President Barack Obama tours fire damage with elected officials and firefighters in the Mountain Shadows residential neighborhood in Colorado Springs on Friday.
Firefighters get ready to tackle the Waldo Canyon Fire on Friday.
A house is engulfed in flames as fire crews fight to contain it at the Rose Crest fire in Herriman, Utah, on Friday, June 29. Crews are fighting to contain six separate blazes in the state.
A pig is evacuated in a wheelbarrow from the Ching Family Animal Refuge in Herriman, Utah, as the wildfires worsen on Friday.
Melissa Bowman, a CNN iReporter from Big Piney, Wyoming, captures the Fontenelle Fire close to her home as she waits for an evacuation notice.
A camp for firefighters is set up at Holmes Middle School in Colorado Springs on Thursday, June 28. The Waldo Canyon Fire has scorched more than 16,700 acres.
A partially burned home smolders Thursday in Colorado Springs.
The line where the Waldo Canyon Fire stopped moving east is seen from the air in Colorado Springs. Lower temperatures and lighter winds helped firefighters on Thursday in the battle against the fire.
An aerial view of a destroyed neighborhood in the aftermath of the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs.
The Waldo Canyon fire spreads through a neighborhood in the hills above Colorado Springs on June 26. See more photos at 
Hazy smoke from the Waldo Canyon Fire looms behind the Air Force Academy stadium on Wednesday, June 27, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The fire expanded to 15,000 acres. More than 32,000 people have been evacuated.
Susan Custer and her husband, Gary Custer, watch the Waldo Canyon Fire on Wednesday.
At dawn on Tuesday, firefighters stir from their tents at a camp near Holmes Middle School.
Smoke billows from the Waldo Canyon Fire west of Colorado Springs on Tuesday.
Evacuees drive under a shroud of smoke from the Waldo Canyon Fire on Tuesday.
J'Amie Sirvaitis of Colorado Springs watches the Waldo Canyon Fire after winds pushed the fire into the Mountain Shadows neighborhood in Colorado Springs on Tuesday.
Residents of Colorado Springs watch as the Waldo Canyon Fire burns a home in the Mountain Shadows neighborhood on Tuesday.
Smoke from the Waldo Canyon Fire engulfs Interstate 25 north of Colorado Springs, Colorado, as the blaze burns out of control Tuesday.
A large plume of smoke from the Waldo Canyon Fire fills the sky west of Colorado Springs on Tuesday.
Jan Stone, right, comforts Angela Morgan as smoke from the Waldo Canyon Fire pours over the Mountain Shadows neighborhood of Colorado Springs on Tuesday.
A portion of the Waldo Canyon Fire moves across a hillside above a subdivision west of Colorado Springs on Tuesday.
Colorado State Patrol and Colorado Department of Transportation personnel set up a roadblock west of Manitou Springs, Colorado, on Monday, June 25.
A portion of the Waldo Canyon fire burns out of control in the hills west of Manitou Springs on Monday.
Trees burn on a ridge above Cedar Heights in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on June 24.
Greg and Karen Bodine help her father, Duane Schormann, left, load his animals into a trailer near Colorado Springs as they evacuate the area June 24.
The High Park Fire, which was 45% contained as of June 23, has destroyed 191 homes west of Fort Collins.
The High Park Fire rages through the forest west of Fort Collins, Colorado, on June 19.
Local resident Dwayne Crawford looks out at the High Park Fire from his home west of Fort Collins on June 19.
A heavy air tanker drops fire retardant on the blaze June 19. Its growth potential was "extreme," according to authorities.
Flames scorched this area outside of Fort Collins where the High Park Fire has burned out, June 19.
A helicopter drops water over the Wood Hollow Fire north of Fairview, Utah, on Tuesday, June 26
A wall of fire makes its way down a hillside toward a farm north of Fairview, Utah, on Tuesday, June 26. The Wood Hollow Fire, one of at least three wildfires burning in Utah, has grown to nearly 39,000 acres.
Smoldering earth and damage from the Dump Fire, which began June 21, can be seen outside a plant near Saratoga Springs, Utah, on Saturday, June 23.
Burned-out terrain from the Dump Fire fills a hillside near Saratoga Springs, Utah on Saturday.
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