20,000 Firefighters Battle Western Fires

Nearly 20,000 firefighters battled wildfires across the West on Wednesday as federal authorities promised more military reinforcements and tens of millions of dollars in emergency funds.

“One wave has crashed, but we can see the next one coming,” said Don Smurthwaite, spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise.

A short stretch of cooler and sometimes rainy weather helped firefighters make progress on fires burning across 490,188 acres in Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, and Montana, Smurthwaite said.

But more than 37,000 lightning strikes since Monday across western Montana, eastern Idaho and Wyoming had crews working to put out new fires before they grow.

After visiting firefighters in northeastern Oregon, U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said firefighter morale was high and coordination between state and federal agencies was effective, but people and equipment were reaching their limits.

In Idaho, More than 370 federal, state and local firefighters took advantage of a second day of relatively cool weather Wednesday to keep a fire that started in the Boise Foothills from spreading across the front near the capital city.

The suspected human-caused Eighth Street Fire started in the cheat grass- and sagebrush-covered foothills on the northern edge of Boise and charred one luxury home Monday night, then turned northeast into the Boise National Forest. Tuesday afternoon winds caused flareups but no major runs.

The Eighth Street blaze had burned about 14,000 acres by Wednesday night, but firefighters had it 60 percent contained, Bureau of Land Management officials said.