Fires continued to burn Thursday in the West, where firefighters inched closer to containing the huge blaze in Washington and raced to slow wildfires tearing through Idaho's parched national forest land.
In California, a furious but smaller wildfire Wednesday chased hundreds of teenagers out of their church camps near Columbia about 150 miles east of San Francisco. The 800-acre blaze sent about 525 children and 50 adults packing.Tuolumne County officials ordered residents evacuated from a 200-house rural development outside Columbia. There were no reports of injuries or damages in the drought-driven fire that ignited Tuesday.
In Washington, steep terrain slowed completion of the last nine miles of firebreak to contain the huge Tyee Creek fire near Entiat, which has scorched 121,850 acres of brush and timber since late last month.
Idaho firefighters sought to contain their biggest blaze, the 29,000-acre Corral Creek fire near the lake community of McCall. The fire slowed its run north to the main Salmon River, 20 miles from where it started. To the south, crews were battling the 18,000-acre Blackwell fire.
Thousands of firefighters worked there and in Arizona, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise.
Cooler, damp weather and scattered rain that began early in the week continued to help fire-fighters.
In Utah, rain helped dampen flames in the 12,000-acre Black Willow blaze, near Oak City, which officials predicted would be encircled by Saturday. Full containment was expected Thursday for the East Harker Complex, which charred nearly 12,456-acres about 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.
A 3-week-old wildfire in the Klamath National Forest in California rekindled and still burns after it was nearly controlled.