States lend support as wildfires blast through western US

A small brush fire spreads ahead of a containment line near the Northwest edge of the Bootleg Fire in Oregon (Nathan Howard/AP)

Out-of-state crews have headed to Montana to battle a blaze that injured five firefighters as the western US struggled with a series of fires that ravaged rural lands and destroyed homes.

Progress was being made on the nation’s largest blaze, the Bootleg Fire in Oregon, but less than half of it had been contained, fire officials said.