Oregon Fire Forces Evacuations

A fast-moving brush and forest fire swept into a residential area near this south-central Oregon city Saturday, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate and apparently igniting some homes.

The 2,000-acre fire was spreading at about one mile an hour, officials said. Residents of some 500 homes in two subdivisions six miles southeast of Bend were evacuated during the morning before the flames reached the area.

“I don’t have a confirmed number, but we have heard that we have structures lost,” said Mike Skeels of the Bend Fire Department.

One of the subdivision also was evacuated briefly Friday night when a smaller fire burned within a few hundred feet of some homes. That fire was contained Saturday at about 100 acres.

It was one of about 30 Oregon fires started by lightning on Friday, and more lightning was forecast. Temperatures soared toward 100 degrees Saturday.

In Idaho, a fire had covered 29,200 acres of a remote wilderness area of the Nez Perce and Bitterroot national forests.