Fires Grow in N. California, Western States

A huge forest fire in Northern California continued to grow Monday as crews worked to enclose it in firebreaks while a wind-whipped blaze jumped a river and burned deeper into an Oregon wilderness area.

Smaller fires burned in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.

More than 1,200 square miles have been charred in the Western states since a series of lightning storms began igniting trees Aug. 28.

In Northern California, the West’s largest forest fire was closer to being controlled but consumed 2,000 more acres over the weekend.

“These fires are going to burn for some time,” Forest Service spokeswoman Nora Laughlin said in the Klamath National Forest.

About 5,000 firefighters remained on the lines in the Klamath National Forest, where slightly less than 226,000 acres have burned. The acreage increased by about 2,000 since Saturday.

The 55,000-acre Silver Complex group of fires in the Siskiyou National Forest west of Grants Pass, Ore., jumped the Illinois River on Sunday. By noon Monday, it had burned 1,500 to 2,500 acres inside the rugged Kalmiopsis Wilderness.

Concern over the safety of firefighters kept supervisors from sending them into the Kalmiopsis to try to check the advancing flames, said Siskiyou spokesman Warren Olney.

“There are situations where the wind is blowing, it is extremely dry, and blow-up conditions could put these people at undo risk. . . . It looks like a major setback in the control of this fire,” Olney said. But he noted that it was moving from timbered areas into dense brush and rocky hillsides with less fuel.

Despite the developments, fire crews said 70% of the fires were contained. The fires had been declared 80% contained late Saturday before the wind increased. A total of 1,500 firefighters were battling the blazes in shifts, Olney said.

About 200 firefighters dug in Monday around a lightning-set fire that had charred 500 acres in the Targhee National Forest in eastern Idaho.