CLE ELUM, Wash. — The extreme fire conditions across the U.S. West have exploded, with several burning across the region Wednesday and about 70 homes destroyed in Washington state.
The blazes, fueled by searing heat, dry weather and strong winds added up to misery for weary residents who already are fed up with one of the region’s worst fire seasons in decades.
Not only are more of the nation’s wildfires occurring in the West this year than last, but the fires have gotten bigger, said Jennifer Smith of the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.
As of Wednesday, 42,933 wildfires have been reported in the country this season, burning 6.4 million acres (2.6 million hectares).
The 10-year average for this period is 52,535 fires, but covering only 5 million acres (2 million hectares), she said.
In recent days, one firefighter died in Idaho after being struck by a falling tree.
Another suffered minor burns and smoke inhalation after a blaze along the Nevada-Oregon border forced her to crawl into an emergency fire shelter.
Hundreds of residents of two small Idaho towns were packing their belongings Wednesday and clearing out of the way of a massive wildfire burning in a gulch a few miles (kilometres) away and expected to hit town later this week.
“It’s not a question of if, but when,” Boise National Forest Spokesman Dave Olson said of the fire reaching the outskirts of one of the towns, Featherville.
Fire crews are battling a total of nine big fires in Idaho, including one in the Salmon-Challis National Forest that stranded 250 rafters floating the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.
In a rural part of Washington state, Wednesday’s calmer winds gave firefighters hope of containing a blaze that has forced hundreds of residents to evacuate.
“Chaotic,” Kittitas County Undersheriff Clayton Myers said. “It was one of those things you never felt like you were in control, because things kept changing with the wind.”
About 70 homes and hundreds of outbuildings had burned, officials said.
Across California, thousands of firefighters were contending with dry conditions and strong winds.
In Southern California, wildfires continue to threaten dozens of homes after burning through more than 19 square miles (49 square kilometres) of brush in the midst of a brutal heat wave.