NU Online News Service, July 6, 12:00 p.m.EDT

The claims numbers are rolling in as insurers and homeownersbegin the painful process of inspecting what remains of thedevastation left from the Colorado wildfires that at their height forced 32,000 people toevacuate their homes and left one insurance executive describinghis own brush with loss.

“At this point the number is fluid and expected tochange,” says Brad Hilliard, State Farm spokesperson for thestate's largest homeowners insurer. “This has been the first daythat adjusters were allowed into the impacted area, so we werefinally able to accompany policyholders into their homes to get alook at individual claims.”

Click “next” to see the losses and numbers.

As of Thursday, State Farm put the total number of claims at565, with 390 in Waldo Canyon, 150 in High Park, and 15 claimscoming in from the Woodland Heights fire.

A spokesperson from Farmers Insurance Exchange says the companyhas received 909 claims as of 9:30 a.m. Pacific Time onThursday.

Farmers' claims came from the High Park and Waldo Canyon fires,the latter of which burnt more than 18,247 acres of dry wood,coming close to Pike's Peak and causing the bulk of theevacuations, including the first-ever clearing of the U.S. AirForce Academy. Firefighters expect the full containment of theWaldo Canyon fire to take place today.

The High Park Fire, which began on June 9, and consumedmore than 87,000 acres, has now been completely contained, but someareas continue to smolder says the U.S. Forest Service.

(AP Photo/ P. Solomon Banda)

As of Thursday, USAA reported approximately 1,200 total propertyclaims for the wildfires around Colorado Springs.

Jim Hannon, director of USAA's Colorado Spring Regional SiteManagement, was among those whose lives were touched by the wildfire.Hannon was attending USAA's 90th anniversary picnic when his wifecalled to inform him that their neighborhood was being evacuateddue to wildfire threats.

“As I drove toward the mountains on the west side of town wherewe live, I sighed as I saw a huge plume of smoke rising from theridge just west of our community,” wrote Hannon on the company'sblog. “That night we watched as huge flames nipped at the edges ofour community and moved farther north along the ridge that bordersColorado Springs (…) It was horrifying. Over the next couple ofdays, the fire grew and more areas were evacuated.”

(Photo courtesy of USAA)

The Waldo Canyon blaze sparked up on June 28, closing businessesand service stations and causing bumper-to-bumper road traffic dueto evacuation along Interstate 25.

(AP Photo/Gaylon Wampler)

Now, The National Interagency Fire Center says 46individual blazes are ripping through 17 states, mostly in thewest.

Montana is burning with four new southeastern wildfires,including the already halfway-contained Ash Creek fire thatconsumed 382 square miles of land, and Utah reported six majorwildfires, including the Shingle fire that destroyed 8,200 acresand torched 850 structures including summer homes in the DixieNational Forest.

(AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

In Wyoming, the elements helped firefighters as they worked inthe rain to help contain the 16-square mile Squirrel Creek Firenear Laramie. Fifteen homes were evacuated with the expectation ofallowing residents to return the next day.

Federal authorities were also busy fighting fire from the skies.The Department of Defense has conducted 123 air drops anddischarged more than 320,000 gallons of flame retardant on theconstellation of blazes, reported the U.S. Forest Service onThursday. Containment efforts are currently centered on theSquirrel Creek Fire in Wyoming, with a total of 18 air dropsdischarging approximately 50,600 gallons of retardant on the area,and the federal government is ramping up to battle the chain offires until the early autumn snow.

(AP Photo/U.S. Forest Service)