Wildfires force evacuations in north-western US

A rapidly-spreading US wildfire forced the evacuation of nearly 200 homes in Montana, while nursing home residents in Washington state were evacuated because of smoke from a nearby blaze.

Firefighters also faced new fires in Oregon and Idaho.

The fire east of Billings had burned about five square miles of grass and timber, said Don Smurthwaite, a spokesman for the Billings Dispatch Centre.

The fire was “really putting up a lot of smoke”, Smurthwaite added. Its cause was unknown.

Sheriff’s deputies went door to door and had evacuated 90% of the 192 homes by mid afternoon, Yellowstone County Commissioner Jim Reno said. There were no immediate reports that any houses had been lost.

In south-east Washington, wind gusting to 15 mph pushed a blaze near the city of Dayton to more than 3,000 acres. The fire ignited on Monday in trees, brush and wheat fields.

South of Dayton, about 80 residents were urged to evacuate, and 35 residents of a nursing home were evacuated because of concerns about the smoke.

As many as 300 residents in and around the small community of Baileysburg, south-east of Dayton, were also urged to evacuate, said fire marshal Clark Posey.

More than 200 firefighters were battling the fire amid gusting winds that blew flames up to a couple of houses, Posey said. A garage and a couple of vehicles burned.

Much of eastern Washington remained under a “red flag” warning for extreme fire threat. Weather forecasters predicted scattered thunderstorms, wind and low humidity that could increase the danger.

The largest group of fires in Washington had blackened nearly 190 square miles of forest between the north-central towns of Winthrop and Conconully since being started by lightning in July.

Firefighters said it was 40% contained yesterday. No structures had burned and no homes had been evacuated.

Among the new fires in central and eastern Oregon, one threatened the small town of Fields. Authorities said it was burning aggressively, but residents remained in their homes.

Lightning started a dozen new fires on Monday in Idaho’s Boise National Forest, including a 300-acre blaze that prompted evacuation of a public hot springs and campground, authorities reported.

Meanwhile, a fire eight miles west of Silver City that was started by lightning on Monday grew to 10,000 acres.