Firefighters in California have made more progress containing a large fire burning just south of another huge blaze, but a wildfire in Washington state has destroyed as many as 100 homes and forced a hospital to evacuate, officials said Saturday. Fire activity is expected to remain high because of extremely dry conditions. The fires have destroyed six outbuildings, and all evacuations in the area have been lifted. Nathan Garibay.
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There are no prison guards out on the front lines with the firefighters, but Daniel Berlant, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, says escape attempts are exceedingly rare.
Firefighters across Idaho braced for tough conditions Friday with strong winds predicted along with temperatures around 100 degrees and dry lightning in the evening.
The fire covers 1,484 acres and is 20% contained, according to the national fire tracking website InciWeb.
Mandatory evacuations are in place for the Jerusalem Valley area east of Spruce Grove. But Verner said Saturday they will instead report on Monday to fires around Chelan. The areas affected include: south of Canyon City to the J-Bar-L Ranch, Marysville Road, Adams Drive, the south side of Marysville Road and Pine Creek.
Photos sent to KREM from viewers showed a home in Kamiah that the station says was burned to the ground.
Elsewhere in the country, evacuations were ordered in northern Idaho and a massive fire straddling the Idaho-Oregon border grew to 340 square miles.
The command center includes the U.S. Forest Service, Oregon Department of Forestry and the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s Office.
In central Idaho, a 600-acre fire burning 13 miles north of Crouch in timber is the largest of three fires started in that area when lightning moved through earlier this week. Some in the region, about 160km north of San Francisco, had only recently returned after fleeing an earlier blaze.
Meanwhile, fires are also spreading in Montana’s Glacier National Park and Helena National Forest. She said fires will continue to burn in the interior until the area receives heavy rain or snow.
The new fire in Lake and Napa counties had expanded across 32 square miles.
Wildfires racing through drought-stricken Southern California have burned at least 130 acres of land and one cabin. The fire is surrounding the small town of Kamiah, about 60 miles east of Lewiston, and burned to the edge of Clearwater River, directly across the water from downtown.
“Fire crews are doing everything possible with the resources at hand to fight the fires”, according to a late-night statement from the Malheur National Forest.
About 10 people remain on site.
A shocking number of firefighters battling California’s numerous wildfires are actually prisoners sometimes working for less than $2 a day.
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At the time of the initial request, the fire was immediately threatening approximately 730 homes in and around the City of Chelan with the perimeter of the fire less than 200 yards from homes.
