Wildfire Destroys 3 Houses Near Tahoe; 1,000 Residents Flee

A wildfire ravaged at least three expensive houses near Lake Tahoe, Nev., and threatened scores of others late Sunday.

Authorities evacuated about 1,000 residents after 2 p.m. Sunday, and the California Highway Patrol shut down the Kingsbury Grade Highway, a major link between Lake Tahoe and the Carson Valley.

In Arizona, 10 hikers were airlifted out of the Grand Canyon on Sunday as firefighters battled a 1,500-acre forest fire.

“If they had come out of the canyon, they would have come out right in the fire,” said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Teri Steilen.

Fire crews from across the country helped battle the forest fire at the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, sparked by lightning Thursday.

They also fought eight other fires in northern Arizona, including a second one at the North Rim. Altogether, the fires had burned 17,000 acres by Sunday night.

In central Utah, more than a dozen wildfires had burned about 20,000 acres by Sunday.