Wildfires Blazing in 9 States May Have Set Record for Acreage Burned

Dozens of wildfires burning across nine Western states Monday pushed the acreage blackened so far this summer to possible record highs, and weary firefighters looked forward to Army and National Guard reinforcements.

“This is the most we’ve burned this early in the West,” said Renee Snyder, a spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. “There are so many fires going on at one time that the resources are being stretched.”

The most serious of the blazes dotting Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington was near Clear Lake, 100 miles north of San Francisco.

That week-old, human-caused blaze had consumed 70,000 acres by Monday, spewing a pall of smoke and raining ash for hundreds of miles around. It was only 17% contained.

About 1,000 people in five communities were evacuated and three more towns were on alert. A total of 2,764 firefighters, sweating through their fireproof suits alongside 35 roaring bulldozers, crashed through trees and underbrush to clear a fire line. And 650 Army soldiers from Colorado were expected to arrive today, spokesman Eric Neitzel said.

Favorable weather looked like it would help their efforts.

But still, 400 structures in Lake County and 22 turn-of-the-century homesteader cabins near Yosemite National Park were threatened by two of 15 separate blazes across California.

Nearly 25,500 acres of forest land burned near Yosemite, and the flames threatened one mountain community and several tree plantations.

For the first time since lightning ignited those flames, the more than 850 firefighters were beginning to feel optimistic, spokesman Allen Spencer said.

In Oregon, firefighters mopped up hot spots on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation while others moved on to other blazes, hoping to control them before the next round of lightning and hot weather.

In Eastern Oregon, a helicopter fighting flames in the Umatilla National Forest crashed while dropping water Monday. The pilot, identified as R. Walters, was not hurt, Interagency Fire Center spokeswoman Roberta Hilbruner said.

Five National Guard firefighting crews of 20 people each were scheduled for duty on fire lines in Oregon, an official said.

In Montana, a cluster of grass fires burned within a mile of four southeastern ranch houses, prompting at least two families to evacuate.

In Southwestern Colorado, firefighters battled a wind-whipped fire in Mesa Verde National Park, hoping to keep the flames from the visitor center, lodge and museum.

It forced the evacuation of hundreds of tourists from the long, high mesa of ancient Anasazi cliff dwellings that date back to the 10th century.