Photo Gallery: Colorado wildfires

The Waldo Canyon fire, the most destructive in Colorado’s history as measured by number of homes destroyed, began on June 23 near Colorado Springs, about 60 miles south of Denver. It forced more than 30,000 residents to evacuate. The majority of them have since returned, and as of Tuesday, an estimated 70 percent of the fire was contained, thanks in part to help from the federal government.

More than 150 National Guard troops were deployed to assist local law enforcement. The U.S. Air Force sent eight tankers to work with private and commercial aircrafts. The U.S. Forest Service, the Interior Department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have all participated in the containment effort. More than half of federal firefighting resources are currently staged in Colorado, according to the White House.

The fire has consumed more than 28 million square miles of land and has accumulated a cost of more than $12.4 million, according to an interagency website . Below is a gallery of efforts to contain the blaze.