The U.S. Wildland Fire Service announced the deaths of three firefighters early Sunday morning after a burnover event near the Colorado-Utah border.

Service officials said crews were responding to wildfires in western Colorado on Saturday when firefighters became trapped and flames overtook them. Two firefighters survived and are being treated for burns, while three others succumbed to their injuries. The identities of those killed and injured are being withheld until family members are notified.

The deaths are the Service’s first fatalities since the Department of the Interior consolidated all of its wildland firefighting forces into a single agency. The Service did not release details of the operational events leading up to the burnover, with officials saying additional information would be released later.

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“The U.S. Wildland Fire Service and the U.S. Forest Service are focused on supporting the firefighters’ family, friends and colleagues during this difficult time,” officials said in the press release.

The firefighters were assigned to the Knowles and Gore fires, which have since combined with the nearby Jones and Snyder fires into what local officials are calling the Snyder Mesa Fire. The combined fires have burned nearly 29,000 acres as of Sunday morning and have triggered an emergency declaration from Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, which activated the state’s Emergency Operations Plan and authorizes the support of the Colorado National Guard.

“This support includes State and interagency engines and handcrews, DFPC and interagency aviation resources, and incident management personnel and overhead to assist in management of the fire and containment efforts,” Polis said. “In addition, DFPC is supporting Mesa County and the incident with administrative and financial oversight and intelligence products that include imaging, mapping, and fire behavior modeling and projects.”

The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office and the American Red Cross established an evacuation resource center in the former Faith Heights Church located at 600 28 ¼ Road in Grand Junction, Colorado.