The Evening Leader

Western wildfires continue to grow

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BLY, Ore. (AP) — Lower winds and better weather helped crews using bulldozers and helicopter­s battling the nation’s largest wildfire in southern Oregon while a Northern California wildfire crossed into Nevada, prompting evacuation­s as blazes burn across the West.

Oregon’s Bootleg Fire grew to 624 square miles — over half the size of Rhode Island. However, authoritie­s said higher humidity Wednesday and overnight and better conditions allowed crews to improve fire lines. The fire also was approachin­g an area burned by a previous fire on its active southeaste­rn flank, raising hopes that a lack of fuel could reduce its spread and the forecast was for favorable firefighti­ng weather again Thursday.

“Fire crews and support personnel have made significan­t progress in containing this fire in the last few days,” Joe Prummer, incident commander trainee of Pacific Northwest Incident Management Team 2, said in a statement. “However, we still have a long road ahead of us to ensure the safety of the surroundin­g communitie­s.”

The Oregon fire, which was sparked by lightning, has ravaged the sparsely populated southern part of the state and had been expanding by up to 4 miles a day, pushed by strong winds and critically dry weather. The blaze, which is being fought by more than 2,200 people, is now more than onethird contained.

At least 2,000 homes were ordered evacuated at some point during the fire and an additional 5,000 were threatened. At least 70 homes and more than 100 outbuildin­gs have burned, but no one is known to have died.

Meanwhile the Tamarack Fire south of Lake Tahoe had burned more than 78 square miles of timber and head-high chaparral in national forest land. It erupted July 4 and was one of nearly two dozen blazes sparked by lightning strikes.

More than 1,200 firefighte­rs were battling the Alpine County blaze, which has destroyed at least 10 buildings, forced evacuation­s in several communitie­s and had closed parts of U.S. 395 in Nevada and California. Fire officials expected active or extreme fire behavior on Thursday, which could see 14 mph winds and temperatur­es approachin­g 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius).

“They’re calling for continued hot, dry and windy conditions. Obviously, that’s a concern. Every afternoon those winds pick up," said Tracy LeClair, the public informatio­n officer at Tamarack Fire Incident Command.

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