Meanwhile almost 1,900 homes are threatened by a wildfire on California’s central coast that grew slightly overnight to almost 58 square miles.
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The state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says the blaze in San Bernardino County mountain areas is 100 percent contained Tuesday after charring almost 57 square miles of drought-dry brush.
In California’s San Luis Obispo County, firefighters have been able to carve containment lines around about a third of the 37,100-acre (15,000-hectare) Chimney Fire by Tuesday morning.
Hearst Castle, the palatial ocean-view estate popular among tourists, remained closed because of its proximity to the flames. The blaze was sparked by an illegal campfire.
“By fighting these fires, we unfortunately enter what’s called the fire paradox, and that is the harder you try to suppress them, the worse they get when they do happen”, Finney said. The state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the blaze in San Bernardino County mountain areas is 100 percent contained Tuesday. So far, 27,000 acres have burned. The weather was cooperating again Wednesday with lighter winds and higher relative humidity forecast.
The fire has destroyed 34 homes and 14 other buildings.
And while firefighters in Southern California work around the clock to control the flames, scientists hundreds of miles away are waging a different sort of battle – the one to fully understand how these blazes spread.
Authorities ordered people in a rural area of northwestern Montana to evacuate before dawn Monday after a wildfire doubled in size in one day.
Meanwhile, a fire near the town of Davenport in Lincoln County covered 6.5 square miles, and was 20 percent contained.
“The devastating fire jumped the Spokane River from Lincoln County onto the Spokane reservation in three separate locations”, Sijohn said.
Fire spokeswoman Sierra Hellstrom said Wednesday that wind and high temperatures Tuesday afternoon had pushed the fire to 1.4 square miles.
Another fire south of Spokane, in the Valleyford area, was 50 percent contained.
A highway leading into Yellowstone National Park remains closed because of a wildfire burning in neighboring Grand Teton National Park in northwest Wyoming.
It had burned more than 10 square miles and destroyed at least five homes, officials said.
All roads and major tourist areas in Yellowstone remained open as firefighters thinned trees and underbrush near the road.
Travelers coming from the south can still access Yellowstone through Idaho and the park’s West Entrance.
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Investigators, who are expected to provide an update later Tuesday, have not determined the cause of the fire.
