Clinton Surveys Blaze in Idaho National Forest

President Clinton toured a vast wildfire ravaging the Payette National Forest in Idaho by helicopter Tuesday, seeing firsthand one of dozens of blazes raging through 11 Western states.

“It’s just amazing, isn’t it, the way it runs up a ridge like that,” Clinton said as he flew over a line of charred forest left by the fire.

After a 40-minute air survey of the fire, Clinton released $150 million in federal aid to help the 22,000 civilian firefighters and military troops continue their battle against the flames.

Fires have raged for weeks across 11 Western states from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, laying waste to nearly 4 million acres since January in what may be the worst fire season in nearly half a century.

About 1,250 firefighters are battling the Payette blaze, with 25,000 acres burning and 42% of the fire contained. About 500 of those working at this base are Army troops.

About 20,000 civilian firefighters, more than 2,000 Army, Marine and Air Force reserve troops and crews from Canada and Mexico have labored to beat back fires on 866,000 acres, with Idaho and Montana the hardest hit this week.

The 66 major fires active had blackened acreage across Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Altogether, more than 4 million acres of forest, brush and grass have burned this year, far more than by this same date in 1988, when large parts of Yellowstone National Park went up in smoke.

The acreage burned is twice as much as normal. If that pace keeps up, it could make 2000 one of the worst fire seasons since the 1950s. About 14 million acres burned in 1952 and more than 17 million acres in 1950.

Flying around the perimeter of the Payette fire, Clinton saw broad swaths of green, smoldering and charred forests with occasional flashes of flame. He also flew near where the fire was sparked by lightning on July 9.

Clinton went from his tour to the firefighters’ camp at Burgdorf Junction, a tent village nestled among fir trees about 8,000 feet above sea level in central Idaho.

“Mostly we came here to say thanks,” he told several dozen firefighters dressed in yellow fire-retardant jerseys. “I know that Mother Nature will burn in our forests one way or another, but it matters how it happens. It matters that people don’t die. It matters that property is saved . . . you’re doing that.”

Clinton had lunch with the firefighters who had spent most of their time digging trenches on the ground and pouring water and flame retardant from the air to try to choke off the massive fires.

They gave the president a Pulaski, a 10-pound tool used to cut down trees and dig trenches aimed at keeping fires from spreading.