13,000 Fight ‘Awesome’ Wildfires in West

More than 13,000 firefighters, some from as far away as Florida, struggled Wednesday to gain the advantage over lightning-sparked wildfires that have swept over an estimated 560,000 acres in six Western states this month.

The weather promised no relief, as hot and dry conditions prevailed over the parched forests and rangelands. The National Weather Service predicted no change today.

The Interagency Fire Center at Boise, Ida., reported that fires covering perhaps 330,000 acres remained out of control. The rest, officials said, had been doused, contained or reduced to smoldering. Lightning began striking in tinder-dry Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Utah and Nevada 12 days ago.

The most troublesome spots were in Idaho, where Gov. John V. Evans declared a state of extreme emergency Tuesday, and in Oregon, where Gov. Victor G. Atiyeh described the sight of the burning wilderness as “awesome.”

Rugged Forest Terrain

Firefighters dodged rolling boulders and flaming branches in two forests in mountainous southwestern Idaho, where more than 100 fires raged. Officials said that three homes were evacuated, and the flames endangered timber valued at $30 million.

Precautionary evacuation orders were drawn up for more than 220 residents in the Boise National Forest’s Garden Valley area, about 40 miles north of Boise. About 3,800 acres of timberland burned near Garden Valley, where three houses were evacuated earlier in the week. The occupants later returned home.

Crews fighting the worst of the blazes were using a hand-held computer that analyzes the fire’s behavior so that command teams can make quick decisions on firefighting tactics, officials said.

Most of the Idaho fires were on open rangelands controlled by the federal Bureau of Land Management.

In Oregon, Atiyeh flew over the charred forests in the northeastern part of the state Tuesday and described the scene as “incredible” and “awesome.” He added that there was a “tragic loss of timber.”

Oregon Reports Progess

Forest and range fires in Oregon blackened more than 150,000 acres since Sunday, but Phil Carroll of the Bureau of Land Management said that all but two of the range fires in that state had been contained or were under control.

So many helicopters, transport planes and aerial tankers were flying into the region that the Federal Aviation Administration set up temporary air traffic control towers in Grangeville and McCall in Idaho, and in La Grande and Pendleton, Ore.

The Grangeville airport’s small control tower was overwhelmed by the extra traffic, which includes large commercial planes bringing in firefighters, FAA spokesman Dick Meyer said in Seattle.

“Its normal operations include about 50 takeoffs and landings in a day,” Meyer said. “Today they’re landing and taking off once every three minutes.”

Washington state officials said that 8,000 acres of state lands had been scorched by flames. Lightning started 275 small fires in Montana, while Utah firefighters claimed victory over that state’s desert, brush and range fires.