Wildfires continue to advance in multiple US states

An aircraft drops fire retardant to slow the spread of the Richard Spring fire, east of Lame Deer, Montana (Matthew Brown/AP)

A wildfire bore down on rural southeastern Montana towns as continuing hot, dry weather throughout the West drove flames through more than a dozen US states.

Several thousand people remained under evacuation orders as the Richard Spring Fire advanced across the sparsely-populated Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.