Western fires threaten thousands of homes, straining resources

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WESTWOOD, Calif. (AP) – A month-old wildfire swept through the forests of northern California and headed for a small forest town as flames in the western United States set fiercely strained resources and threatened with destruction of thousands of homes.

Crews were cutting brush and using bulldozers to build lines to prevent the Dixie Fire from reaching Westwood east of Almanor Lake, not far from where the blaze destroyed much of the town of Greenville last week.

The entire town of about 1,700 people was placed under evacuation orders on August 5 as the blaze neared.

In the northwest, the monument fire – one of at least three large lightning-triggered fires in the past month – developed after destroying a dozen homes and threatening around 2,500 homes in an area sparsely populated. Firefighters said on Friday that flying embers started point fires up to a mile before the main fire in Shasta-Trinity National Forest.

They were part of more than 100 large forest fires in a dozen Western states affected by drought and hot, dry weather that turned forests, brush, grassland and pasture to tinder.

The US Forest Service said on Friday it was operating in crisis mode, fully deploying firefighters and maximizing its support system.

The approximately 21,000 federal firefighters working on the ground are more than double the number of firefighters sent to contain wildfires at the same time a year ago, and the agency faces “critical resource limits.” said Anthony Scardina, the agency’s deputy forester. Southwest Pacific region.

More than 6,000 firefighters single-handedly battled the Dixie Fire, which destroyed more than 1,000 homes, businesses and other structures and was the largest wildfire in the United States. of Tokyo – and was 31% contained.

The cause of the fire has not been determined. Pacific Gas and Electric said the fire may have started when a tree fell on its power line.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, there was also a risk of new fires breaking out due to unstable weather conditions, including a risk of thunderstorms that could bring lightning to northern California, Oregon and the Nevada.

“Mother Nature continues to throw obstacles in our way,” said Edwin Zuniga, spokesperson for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, who was working with the Forest Service to surround the Dixie Fire.

In southeast Montana, firefighters and residents scrambled to save hundreds of homes as the flames advanced across the northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.

The fire was more than 50% contained. But its southern edge was still burning near the tribal headquarters town of Lame Deer, where a mandatory evacuation remained in place, and a second fire loomed from the opposite direction.

The fires had previously burned or threatened grasslands on which many residents depend with cattle and horses for their livelihoods, Montana officials said.

Smoke from the fires grew so thick on Friday that Lame Deer Health Clinic was shut down after its air filters failed to deal with the pollution, Northern Cheyenne Tribe spokesperson Angel said. Becker.

The smoke has also driven air pollution levels to unhealthy or very unhealthy levels in parts of Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Northern California, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Hot, dry weather with strong afternoon winds also propelled several fires in Washington state, and similar weather was expected for the weekend, fire officials said.

In southeast Oregon, two new lightning-triggered wildfires on Thursday near the California border spread rapidly through junipers, sagebrush and evergreen trees.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown declared an emergency for one of the fires to mobilize crews and other resources in the area of ​​ranches, rural subdivisions and RV parks about 14 miles away (23 km) from the small town of Lakeview.

Triple-digit temperatures and drought conditions in Oregon, enduring a third day of extreme heat, could increase fire risk throughout the weekend.

Climate change has made the western United States hotter and drier over the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, scientists say.

Dozens of fires are also burning across western Canada and Europe, including Greece, where a massive forest fire has decimated forests and burned down homes.

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This story has been corrected to show that the Dixie fire was most likely caused by a tree falling on a power line, according to PG&E, and not lightning.

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Nguyen reported from Oakland, California. Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco, and Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.

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