in custer county where the fire has exploded in the last few hours. >> reporter: in just the last 12 hours the junkins fire has exploded from 2,500 acres to nearly 11,000. strong winds out of the east are pushing this fire and smoke into neighboring counties and even pueblo where preevacuation notices are in effect for residents in the area. the fire broke out just after 3 a.m. where 150 structures were put in immediate danger. it caused more than 3,000 people to evacuate to fire continued to push with 35 mile-per-hour gusts. there's no word how many firefighters are fighting this fire, but more than 13 engines are building fire lines in rough terrain. with strong wind expected throughout the evening, the fire is expected to grow, as are evacuation numbers. reporting in custer county dan grossman, 9news. >> no doubt fire officials have their hands busy this afternoon. they will brief the media

wind definitely is not helping the firefighters. red flag warnings are in effect for much of our state. danielle grant is in the weather center. some places have been gusts up to 60 mailings an hour. >> they have been unruly and unfortunately this is what we were imagining happening this afternoon with the strong winds out there and tinder dry conditions. we see wildfires spark up like that. wind gusts 30 mile-per-hour in longmont, 60 mile- the cheyenne ridge, fort morgan 62 mile-per-hour wind speeds and 20s and 30s in the denver metro area. these winds will weaken heading towards this afternoon further into this evening. down across the southern section of our state you can see the winds in the 30 mile- per-hour range toward alamosa, 44 mile-per-hour speeds in trinidad. relative humidity values picking up here in denver. you can see they're still in the teens toward salida and pueblo, 8% in trinidad where

until 9 p.m. tonight for most of eastern colorado and you can see it's going to take a while before our winds truly start to weaken. 11:30, midnight, still in the 20 to 30 mile-per-hour range. tomorrow morning 5 to 10 and could pick up by tomorrow afternoon yet again. winds weakening overnight, a glimmer of hope, some good news. will we see some rain? it's questionable. i'll let you know who has th it looks like a nice little cooloff shortly and it will finally feel more like fall and feel like october around here. >> break the heat a little bit. we'll talk to you soon. thank you. aurora fire is mopping up after a fire damaged several townhomes in southeast aurora. a viewer sent us this video taken after the fire started near east mississippi avenue and tower road. aurora fire says four units were involved, three heavily damaged. no one was hurt, no word yet

just days after finding a backpack bomb outside of the nederland police department an arrest was made. 64-year-old david ansberry was picked up in chicago over the weekend. authorities say the 3' 6-inch man stood out in surveillance video at the store where he bought a cell phone to detonate the device. the device failed to detonate. the device was found in a backpack october 11th. it was nederland police station thinking it was lost property. it was detonated in a parking lot. the issue of consent in sexual assault cases is often what makes those cases so complicated and that issue has affected a case of sexual assault using foreign objects in a downtown denver hotel. the inability to prove whether there was consent prompted the denver prosecutors to dismiss the case today. 9wants to know reporter anastasiya bolton joins us now. what are we talking about here?

charged with six -- messer originally charged with six counts of sexual assault. the 40-year-old canadian met some of the victims at a bar, started drinking and could not remember how she got to the grand hyatt. she woke up naked in a hotel room and felt she'd been sexually assaulted. video cameras captured the woman leaving the hotel and reaching out to another man on a dating site who she then had a relationship with. it was just one of the issues prosecutors had this came up at a court hearing early on causing a judge to dismiss four of the six counts. today the denver district attorney mitch morrissey dismissed the last two. >> while there was clearly injuries on the part of the victim. she had injuries. there were things done here that would shock you, but was it consensual or not is really the question. obviously the judge felt we had

consensual, but based on what eyewitnesses told us, based on what witnesses after the fact told us, based on the dna evidence we felt we didn't have enough to go forward. >> what happened was completely consensual and as it relates to colby messer, there was no dna and no witness identification and he wasn't involved in any way, shape or form and i think that was the drivin mitch morrissey to encourage the prosecutors not to move forward. >> morrissey says it is still important to report sexual assault because even if the case does not meet the threshold beyond a reasonable doubt, there are resources available to victims that could help them deal with what happened. >> anastasiya bolton reporting for us, thank you. there are 21 days until the election and by the end of the week you should have a ballot

mailed out to registered voters this week. quinnipiac university put out a poll today showing a shift in independent voters giving hillary clinton leads in several swing states. the candidates are tied in ohio and colorado. clinton is ahead of trump with 45% of the vote. trump has 37%. gary johnson has about 10% of the vote. donald trump, jr. worked his way across colorado today. he met with trump volunteers d centennial gun club. he was in boulder a short time ago. he originally had planned to go to the sink, but the owner said he found out about it when he read the newspaper. the event was moved to the montgomery house at eighth street and pearl street. donald trump will be in colorado springs tomorrow and grand junction. bernie sanders was campaigning for hillary clinton

senator elizabeth warren in massachusetts in denver. the pair talked about clinton's plan to build an economy that works for everyone. in fort collins today sanders talked at csu laying out the stakes of the election for students and millennial voters. 9news is helping you sort through those blue books before you make your election picks. we're hosting two more debates and we'll look closer at ballot then on channel 20 a discussion between the 6th congressional district. a firebomb was set to local republican headquarters in north carolina. investigators say someone torched the orange county republican party headquarters last weekend by throwing a flammable device through a window. gop representatives from around the state including north carolina governor fought mccrory condemned the attack calling it political terrorism. the headquarters is getting

gofundme page which has raised over $13,000 and will go toward getting the office back on track. the u.s. department of transportation is banning all samsung galaxy note 7 phones from airplanes. you can't even turn it off and put it in your checked bag. samsung recommends were at dia today replacing people's phones on site. we reached out for more information on when and where airport. we haven't heard back yet. >> skip the trick-or-treating for a night in dracula's castle. what changes could be coming to a very popular tourist destination in utah. >> and strangers come together

we want to give you an update on the junkins fire. fire managers just briefed reporters. they're saying 156 homes are this fire is burning near westcliffe, colorado. it started about 3:30 a.m. 11,500 acres have burned down from the 13,000 we had heard earlier. at this point about 3,000 people are under a preevacuation notice. this fire has no containment at all. four structures have been lost, at least one a home. we have a crew there and will continue to bring you updates from fire managers on the scene on 9news at 9:00 and 10:00.

florida, formed a human chain to rescue a man from a burning car. sunday a two-vehicle crash sent one car careening down an embankment in a town southeast of orlando on the coast. several people pulled over to free the trapped driver. police say he actually fought them because he had a head injury that made him incoherent. the strangers linked up and managed to pull him to safety before the car exploded. >> that's exactly what everyone is thinking is any moment we could be witnessing a horrible, horrible scene, bu it turned out to be a miracle, you know, to see them all come up the hill like that and every single person be safe. >> police say five to six men went arm to arm. a police officer grabbed the man by his belt and then was able to get ahold of his arm. from there the strangers together were able to pull him up to safety. rail service is now almost fully restored at the hoboken transit station less than a month after it was damaged in the train crash. the new jersey station was damaged when a train traveling

crashed into a platform killing a woman and injuring more than 100 others. the station has been slowly reopening since last week. six tracks opened this morning and so did the station's ticket office. two tracks are still closed. trains entering the station now must reduce their approach speed from 10 miles per hour to 5 miles per hour. zion national park may start limiting the number of visitors in the park. the salt lake tribune reports that park officials are planning several public meetings to discuss how to and increased land erosion. zion is expecting a record 4 million visitors this year. one idea they have? using a reservation system instead of a first come first serve basis. people can submit comments and strategies proposed at the website. target has been pulling some clown masks from stores and online due to sensitivity for the creepy clown square across the country. there are only a few in store

available for purchase. target edited down its clown assortment online. police in several state including minnesota and colorado have been dealing with threats and pranks related to people wearing clown masks. on october 31st two people will be allowed to sleep in velvet trimmed coffins in count dracula's castle in romania. no, thank you. house rules say to leave the garlic scented items at home. a promotion from airbnb says two people sleep in velvet trimmed coffins in the count's crypt and will spend the rest of the night in the castle completely alone. the company launched the contest today on the dracula's castle. the former royal family of hapsburg was chased out by a communist regime almost 60 years ago now. the castle is now a museum and major tourist attraction in

century ruler whose life inspired the book may have spent some time there briefly. kim, you in? >> still doesn't make it any easier to jump in. pass. stick closer to home. it has been windy and very warm across the metro area. it's going to cool off eventually just a little. >> later this week. danielle is actually tracking an upcoming storm.

we've been telling you all about that fire burning in southern colorado. danielle, those winds certainly a big factor in keeping that thing burning. >> huge. we've been watching wind gusts in the 50 to 60 mile-per-hour range. they should quiet down just a bit this evening. you can see outside downtown denver all those strong winds al much dust out there, tough to seen see the mountains and foothills in the far off distance. as we look ahead as to the wind gusts across the city, you will be noticing those picking up in that 50 to 60 mile-per-hour range as we go throughout the rest of this evening. i think we still have maybe an hour or so. so far 66 mile-per-hour gusts in greeley, 62 in fort morgan, 49 in boulder and 36 mile-per- hour gusts out at dia. it is all because of the jet

further to the north. that's allowing those winds to make their way all the way down here to the metro area and even across the entire state we have been watching these wind speeds kicking up significantly right now gusting to 62 miles per hour in greeley, 35 in denver. in southern colorado where we are watching that wildfire burn 30 to 40 mile-per-hour speeds easily and we still have a couple of hours to go. we hit 75 at the airport this afternoon, low 90s in lamar and sprid, the west, pretty comfortable day for you folks aside from the winds. plenty of sunshine at the airport right now, the winds strong out of the northwest sustained at 23 miles per hour. here in the 9news backyard our temperatures cooling off as that front moved through, also helping to kick up the winds just a bit. on hd doppler 9 we have been watching showers pouring in one storm system after the next to the pacific northwest. now they're finally getting

the rocky mountain national park. we've picked up on some light snowfall west of estes park lining up the continental divide and this is the view at the alpine visitors center, plenty of snowfall coming down. that cold front pushing throughout the entire. it finally packs its bags and moves east tomorrow making way for another little storm system to kind of graze colorado. tonight just winds start to finally dial back a bit between 10 and 20 miles per hour, 30s and 40s for eastern colorado, 29 in kremmling. the light snow showers will fizzle throughout the next hour or so. 11 p.m. mostly clear skies with the clouds increasing throughout the early morning. you can see as that next system starts nudging its way into the state we'll watch for a little rain and snowfall in the mountains. this takes us to 4 or 5 p.m. the clouds have made their way into denver.

maybe one or two light rain showers crossing larimer into weld county. it's going to be a few sprinkles and the storm system will be long gone. tomorrow 64, finally feeling a little more like fall, seasonal temperatures for this time of year. we'll knock it back 20 degrees in southeastern colorado down to the 70s. 53 in nederland, low 60s in idaho springs and bailey tomorrow afternoon, should feel nice with winds finally starting to quiet down a bit. the mercury rises like that, low 60s thursday and the

stocks closed modestly lower on wall street today with some of the biggest declines coming in oil and gas companies as energy prices turned lower. the dow fell 51 points, the s&p 500 index lost six, nasdaq

from colorado's sports leader here's aaron matas. >> good evening. brock osweiler and the houston texans coming to town monday night, a game under the national spotlight, but first a big return for the team. head coach gary kubiak back at practice for the first type since that loss to atlanta two sundays ago, kubiak taken to the hospital last week after what was diagnosed as migraine condition. kubiak said his tests came back great. doctors want him to work on his sleep patterns. otherwise it's back to work. >> when you're a football coach taking two days away from what you do is like what the hell is going on here, you know? it's like having a summer off or something, but no. it just makes you appreciate the players, makes you appreciate being around the coaches, the players, even you guys, okay? it's good to be back. that might be a reach.

decamillis can go back to special teams coordinator. 9news broncos insider mike klis joins us now. the impact of kubiak running the show again probably can't be understated. >> you know in, 8th grade math class when miss agnes was absent, out came the spit wads when the substitute teacher was there and it's not that, you know, when miss agnes came back, everybody had their hands on the desktop and their feet on th joe decamillis is not that soft. but the message is more listened to intently when the big boss is there. so kubiak, when he says something this week, the players will pay attention. it's just natural. >> now the other big return this week, mike, and this one will be slightly more hostile. brock osweiler coming back to denver with a texans jersey on. >> brock osweiler after talking

room, brock is going to be a marked man this week. brandon marshall casually said we want to kill him. chris harris said that they think they're going to go out and they want to win this game bad and they want to get a lot of picks against brock osweiler, going to be very interesting this week against brock. bad news for all of csu. it's not that passed off. the conference decided it was not to expand at all. >> the decision was unanimous. it was all the schools participated very actively in the decision. so once that decision was made, once we decided that this issue would no longer stay on the agenda we decided to move on.

pac-12 offensive player of the week following the buffs win over arizona state saturday in boulder. the denver south graduate rushed for 290 teen yards and three touchdowns helping -- 219 yards and three touchdowns helping csu improve its record to 5-2. last february newton walked away from his post super bowl press conference after losing to the broncos and things haven't gone that smoothly for the reigning mvp since then. newton and the panthers lost to new orleans their record to 1-5 and cam didn't want to talk about the struggles. >> next question. just got to find ways to win the football game. next question. [ can't hear question ] >> that was it. shorter than his super bowl press conference. he walked out again. >> he shouldn't wear that hat when he's acting like that.

minute and 44 second press conference. >> he said next question. >> he was trying to move it along, i guess. >> do you guys have anything else? >> next question. >> my sun devils lost. weather, let's get to that. >> hey, the wind just ridiculous outside. good news is late tonight they should quiet down, maybe a couple light rain showers tomorrow evening and temps warm

tonight, trump's rigged charge. down in the polls, donald trump goes all in on unsupported claims about large-scale voter fraud. inflammatory accusations that have democrats and republicans pushing back hard. plus, new hacked e-mails from hillary clinton's campaign manager. new campaign trouble from wikilea. isis showdown. a pivotal battle begins. richard engel inside the command center as americans and iraqis open a massive offensive on the islamic state's center of power in iraq. olympic star's tragedy. american medalist teenage daughter killed in the crossfire. tonight charges after a fatal encounter in a parking lot. and the doctor will see you now. instead of going to the doctor's office, they virtually come to yours. the future of medicine