HELENA, Mont. — Two hundred Canadian firefighters and 500 additional Army troops will reinforce beleaguered crews battling wildfires across the West, the head of the U.S. Forest Service said Friday.
Mike Dombeck said most of the Canadians will be assigned to Montana while a second battalion of 500 Army troops from Fort Hood, Texas, will undergo firefighting training and join 500 Army troops and 500 Marines already assigned to fires in Idaho.
Dombeck toured the Idaho and Montana fire lines Friday and promised adequate resources for fire crews.
"We're really at the mercy of Mother Nature," the Forest Service chief said. "Unless we have a miraculous change in the weather, I think we can look forward to several tough weeks ahead of us."
In Montana, 15 major fires were burning on 100,000 acres. Hundreds of homes were evacuated in the Bitterroot Valley, where heavy smoke cut visibility to zero on stretches of highways.
In Nevada, a firefighting helicopter crashed near Elko, killing one crew member and injuring three other people shortly after takeoff late Thursday. One crew member remained in serious condition Friday; the pilot and a fuel truck driver who ran to help were treated and released.
In all, nearly 62,000 wildfires have been reported across the nation this year, scorching nearly 3.8 million acres. Assistant Interior Secretary Sylvia Baca has called it the worst fire season in 50 years.
More than 60 large fires were burning Friday across more than 650,000 acres of the West, and forecasts called for continued dry, hot conditions with the potential for lightning-packed thunderstorms.
Fire conditions were predicted at the worst possible level, known as "red flag," Friday, with temperatures in the 90s and blustery winds. The entire southwestern Montana zone raised its fire-danger rating to "extreme" on Thursday. It previously reached that level in 1994 and 1988, officials said.
Farther south, near Jackson, Wyo., a brief downpour Thursday slowed a 3,100-acre wildfire, but 200 people were no closer to returning to their homes, cabins and campsites in the Bridger-Teton National Forest on Friday.
The lack of rain in northwestern Wyoming is close to what it was in 1988, the year of the devastating Yellowstone National Park fires.
In central Idaho, nearly 600 soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas, wrapped up two days of firefighter training and streamed into already burned areas to begin mopping up.
The soldiers' arrival freed up experienced firefighters to battled the stubborn blaze that had ballooned to 17,000 acres by Friday. Six Blackhawk helicopters joined the crew, dropping water and flame retardant on hotspots.
Outside Reno, crews corralled a fire that damaged six homes even as other lightning-sparked blazes flared up across northern Nevada — some burning virtually unchecked.
Gary Zunino, northern regional manager for the Nevada Division of Forestry, said the number of people and equipment to battle the flames was dwindling.
"The fires are going to move fast and get big fast," he said. "Everybody in the West is fighting for the same resources."
Elsewhere, firefighters across Utah battled nearly 109,800 acres of wildfires after a night of thunderstorms brought dozens of new fires to the state.
On the Net: National Fire Information Center: www.nifc.gov
Forest Service links: www.fs.fed.us/fire/links2.shtml