Barack Obama toured smouldering districts of Colorado Springs on Friday, offering federal disaster funds to the “heartbroken community” as it struggles to contain wildfires that have already claimed at least two lives and destroyed hundreds of homes.

As the Waldo Canyon fire continued to rage on the edge of the city, the president praised the firefighters battling to bring it under control and said Americans would come together to support the tens of thousands forced to flee.

During a tour of the Mountain Shadows neighbourhood, where houses were left blackened and ruined when the blaze reached it three days ago, Obama appeared stunned by the random nature of the devastation.

“You have a house that’s cinders, next to it, it’s untouched,” he said.

Later, in a brief statement outside the city’s fire station number nine, he described the devastation from the fires as enormous but said officials were “starting to see progress”.

“When natural disasters hit, all of America comes together,” he said. “We all realise: ‘there but for the grace of God, go I.’”

Paying tribute to the firefighters, Obama added: “We can provide all the resources … what we can’t do is provide them with the courage and the determination and professionalism” to fight the fires.

Mountain Shadows is one of the worst hit districts, and the scene of the first confirmed fatality. On Thursday night, human remains were discovered in one of the homes, and it was confirmed that remains of a second person had been found on Friday.

The deaths cast a sombre shadow over a day in which the news was more positive on efforts to contain the wildfire.

Ahead of Obama’s arrival, fire officials said they were now making “great strides” in controlling the wildfire, which exploded out of the foothills earlier this week destroying nearly 350 homes and forcing more than 30,000 to flee.

Evacuation orders were lifted on a number of areas, and normal operations resumed at the air force academy, a portion of which had been evacuated because of the wildfire.

Fire officials said they hoped to lift more evacuation orders later on Friday though residents would not be able to return permanently to neighbourhoods until electricity and other services was restored.

“We made great strides yesterday. We were able to up our containment to at least 15%, and 15% is a lot,” said Jerri Marr of the US forest service. “We feel with a lot of confidence, based on the weather, that we are going to be able to up that number by the end of the day. We are going to make a lot of progress.”

Later on Friday, it was confirmed that firefighters had contained 25% of the fire.

Some 1,100 firefighters were now working to beat back the wildfire behind containment lines. The effort got additional aerial support on Friday in the form of four more US air force C-130s. The planes have been dropping thousands of gallons of bright orange flame retardant on the containment lines.

Some fire officials were so hopeful as to suggest the wildfire could be entirely contained within a few days. For others, however, the ordeal is just beginning.

Hundreds of residents got their first definitive confirmation on Thursday night that they had lost their homes in the wildfire. “We had seen some pictures, but the meeting, and seeing so many others in the same situation, just made it all seem real,” said Rebekah Largent.

Her family was renting their apartment in the Mountain Shadows neighbourhood. But she said she lost her wedding dress and the rocking chair she used to put her baby to sleep.

One reporter who accompanied the president on his visit described the scene which greeted him in Mountain Shadows. “Homes were burned to their foundation with water still spewing out of pipes, an orange Saab was half burned in one driveway and a Toyota was melted down to the frame and shelling at another house,” he wrote in a pooled dispatch.

The White House said Obama’s visit was intended to offer some support to families in a similar predicament, as well as to thank firefighters who are struggling against record wildfires.

The funds announced on Friday will be used to help the state cope with the aftermath of the fire, and also include job and psychological counselling, the White House said.

But the visit to a battleground state just months before the elections was politically sensitive. Local television is already running blanket campaign ads. Colorado Springs, because of the air force base, is seen as a Republican stronghold.

Local officials were insistent that the security preparations for Obama’s visit, which was to include a tour of affected areas and visits with firefighters, would not distract from that progress.

“Colorado Springs does not have the assets to help with the presidential visit,” Steve Cox, an adviser to the city’s mayor told reporters.

He said there would be limited road blocks and no interruption in airborne fire operations because of the visit.