EMPLOYERS IN THE ZONE CALL OFF WORK [Gazette, The (CO)]

Several major Colorado Springs employers inside a voluntary evacuation zone evacuated some or all of their facilities Thursday as the Black Forest fire threatened the northern tip of the city.

Other businesses within the voluntary evacuation zone continued operating but were ready to shut down if the mandatory evacuation zone expanded to include their facilities.

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin said Thursday it closed three facilities in the voluntary evacuation area because "conditions have deteriorated to the point where we believe it is in the best interest of our employees to close three facilities that are near the impacted areas," according to a statement from company spokeswoman Suzanne Smith.

Smith said she did not know how many employees were affected.

Insurance giant Progressive Corp. closed its Colorado Springs call center and a mail processing center in the Northgate area, which together employ about 1,500. But it kept its nearby disaster recovery center open with a skeleton staff, said Jeff Sibel, a spokesman at the company's Cleveland area headquarters. The insurer's operations were not affected because calls to the center were automatically rerouted to other Progressive call centers.

WHPacific did not open its Colorado Springs headquarters Thursday and shifted those operations to its Lakewood office because of the voluntary evacuations, said company president Robert Macomber.

The nonprofit Compassion International did not close its headquarters complex, which includes three buildings along Voyager and Middle Creek parkways, on Thursday but most of its 985 employees accepted an offer to "go home if they wanted or needed to," said spokesman Tim Glenn. Compassion's operations continued without interruption and could go on even with a mandatory evacuation, since it can move its Web operations off-site.

"We are constantly watching the situation. Everyone is anxious. Many of our coworkers have lost homes or been evacuated, so we are closely watching the news and reading information online," Glenn said.

Spectranetics will continue manufacturing medical lasers, catheters and other related equipment at its Colorado Springs plant unless it is included in a mandatory evacuation, but the company is trying to help find lodging and meals for employees affected by evacuations, said Karol Norie, a company spokeswoman.

FedEx continued operations Thursday at its Rocky Mountain Technology Center, a software development operation, and its Enterprise Data Center West, both near Voyager Drive and Northgate Road, which together employ about 600.

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Contact Wayne Heilman: 636-0234