Rain Helps Slow 25 Major Wildfires

Rain, cooler temperatures and higher humidity Wednesday slowed 25 major wildfires burning on more than 125,000 acres, mostly in the Northwest, where Idaho remained the hot spot.

Vic Standa, spokesman for the Boise Interagency Fire Center, the nation’s firefighting nerve center, said that 19 major fires were burning in Idaho, where 9,700 firefighters were assigned.

“Since Friday, over 148,000 acres have been contained in the West, and that’s on over 40 individual fires,” Standa said.

Heavy rains Tuesday allowed firefighters to contain the 23,350-acre Canal fire near Enterprise, Ore. The 1,490-acre Camaron Lake fire near Colville, Wash., also was contained Tuesday, the same day it began, and the 280-acre Six Mile blaze in Montana’s Gallatin National Forest near Bozeman also was contained.

Despite about 59,000 lightning strikes Tuesday night, primarily in Nevada and Oregon, no new fires were reported, Standa said. The forecast called for more thunderstorm activity in the region.

Wade Bomar, a firefighter from Billings, Mont., was in critical condition Wednesday with a broken back and shoulders suffered when a cut tree fell on him as he was fighting a blaze in that state, Standa said. About 75 other firefighters suffered minor injuries Tuesday, mostly scrapes and bruises.