Resources stretched to limit as US wildfires take hold

International wildfire crews could be called to help fight blazes in the bone-dry American West as officials boosted the US wildfire alert to its highest level.

“It’s driven by a couple of things: the number of large fires we have, and also the fires are occurring in several states and in several geographic areas,” Randy Eardley, a spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Centre in Boise, Idaho said. “The resources we have are being stretched thin.”