Wildfires
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Bizarro Earth

Out of Control: Washington state wildfire wipes most of a small town off the map - destroying 100 homes

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© APCharred: The foundation of a home and burned-out cars remain from a wildfire the night before, Friday, July 18, 2014, in Pateros, Washington
A raging wildfire in central Washington has wiped most of a small town off the map - destroying 100 homes as it whips out of control across 260 square miles of dry forest - and fears are now growing that it will claim a second community.

The Carlton Complex fire grew by nearly ten times Friday as four fires horrifically merged into one and exploded across the small village of Pateros, officials said. Residents of the town of Malott and outlying areas of nearby Brewster have been evacuated as flames rages only miles from their homes.

'We basically evacuated the whole town' of Malott, Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers said Friday night. Those living in outlying areas of Brewster were also told to leave. Malott is home to about 500 people, while the population of Brewster is about 2,400.


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Bizarro Earth

Wildfires rage on U.S.West Coast causing evacuations of entire towns

carlton complex wildfires
© AP Photo/Ted S. WarrenA plane drops fire retardant on the Chiwaukum Creek Fire near Leavenworth, Wash., Thursday, July 17, 2014. The blaze closed a section of U.S. Highway 2, and resulted in the evacuation of nearly 900 homes.

A small north-central Washington town and a nearby hospital threatened by a wind-whipped wildfire have been evacuated, and the blaze has burned at least 35 homes in Okanogan County, the sheriff said.

Sheriff Frank Rogers said late Thursday he's heard of no injuries from the Carlton Complex of wildfires.

The sheriff issued his highest evacuation notice Thursday for Pateros, a town of about 650 people along the Columbia River. Residents drove south to Chelan. A hospital in nearby Brewster was evacuated as a precaution, with the patients sent to Omak.

"The whole town was evacuated," Rogers said in a telephone interview as he drove the eight-mile stretch between Brewster and Pateros. "It was a chaotic mess but we got everybody on the highway."

"There's nobody in Pateros" except a few "stragglers" who stayed, he said, adding the fire was burning in the town, although the small business district was believed intact.

Rogers said perhaps 15-20 homes have burned in Pateros and another 20 homes in the Twisp-Winthrop area. He had no estimate of how many homes have burned in the entire county of about 40,000 people.

Phoenix

Wildfires prompt evacuations in British Columbia and Alberta

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© THE CANADIAN PRESSAn aerial view of the Red Deer Creek wildfire near the B.C./Alberta boundary is shown in a government of British Columbia handout photo.
Aggressive wildfires in British Columbia and Alberta have prompted evacuation orders in both provinces as crews struggle to contain the flames.

A remote Alberta community was ordered to evacuate as a raging wildfire in B.C. approached the border.

A state of local emergency and evacuation order were declared Tuesday evening for the Municipal District of Greenview No. 16.

The evacuation order applies to a remote part of northwestern Alberta south of the Wapiti River, west of Nose Creek and the Two Lakes Road and north of Township 61.

Residents in the area were advised to immediately leave their homes with their personal belongings.

Cloud Lightning

3,400 lightning strikes in Central Oregon - dozens of wildfires erupt

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Mt. Bachelor opened its mtn. bike park for the season Sunday -- but this is a far more electrifying moment caught on camera, a view of lightning appearing to hit the summit of South Sister
Thunderstorms rolled north through Central Oregon Sunday afternoon, accompanied by 3,400 lightning strikes that had crews scrambling to hit dozens of new, mostly small fires across the region -- some threatening homes on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. A Klamath County fire grew to 600 acres and burned structures.

About 3,400 lighting strikes pelted the region between early Sunday morning and the evening hours, resulting in 65 smoke reports by early evening to the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center in Prineville, said spokeswoman Jean Nelson-Dean.

Nearly half of those resulted from an intense late-afternoon thunderstorm that rolled through the Ochoco National Forest and Prineville District of the BLM, as well as private lands in Crook County, she said.

The largest new fire in Central Oregon was burning at the extreme southern end, four miles northeast of Cabin Lake, near Forest Service Road 18, about three miles north of the Klamath-Deschutes County border.

That fire was estimated at about 40 to 60 acres, with five engines, a 20-person crew and a water tender working the fire, along with a pair of single-engine air tankers (SEAT planes) making retardant drops.


Extinguisher

Wildfires: Greek firefighters battle bushfire near Athens

Wildfire near Athens Greece
A massive bushfire is threatening houses near the Greek capital, Athens, with more than 100 firefighters struggling to contain the flames.

The fire began on Saturday in the town of Keratea, located some 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the capital.

The fire raged unchecked for several hours in the forested hills above the city's houses, with strong winds sparking new fronts for several kilometers.

Local mayor Costas Levantis told Greek media that one house has been burned down by the flames.

Authorities have dispatched 120 firemen, two planes, two helicopters and dozens of firefighting vehicles; however, they have so far failed to extinguish the blaze.

Residents in the affected area have already been evacuated for safety, as dark smoke and orange flames could be seen for kilometers. The flames are now threatening homes on the outskirts of Athens.

Meanwhile, the Greek government has warned that firefighting resources are stretched dangerously thin.

Greece has often been plagued during the summer season by hundreds of fires in the past, some of them deadly.

Last year, wildfires forced massive evacuations in the city of Avra, located some 50 kilometers from Athens, after ten houses went down in flames.

In 2007, over 70 people died in some 3,000 wildfires that destroyed an estimated 10,000 hectares of land across Greece.


Extinguisher

Wildfires burn 2,000 acres in rural California prompting evacuations

California wildfire
© CBSCalifornia fire officials say the Bully Fire started Friday afternoon in a forested area in Shasta County.
Wildfires in rural California burned through 2,000 acres of brush and timberland on Friday, prompting some evacuations, but no homes were threatened, officials said.

A 1,200-acre fire erupted Friday afternoon in the unincorporated community of Igo, a few miles from Redding in Northern California. It was 10 percent contained by nightfall.

Evacuations were ordered near some roads to clear the way for fire crews and as a precaution in case a wind shift drove flames toward scattered homes in the area, state fire spokesman Dennis Mathisen said.

The fire was burning in a foothill area of brush and oak, he said.

Aircraft and about 280 firefighters were on the scene but the work was challenging because the fire seemed to be heading into steeper areas.

"They still have a lot of work ahead of them," Mathisen said.

Extinguisher

Wildfires: Forest fires sweep over 13,500 hectares in Siberia

Forest fires in Siberia
© ITAR-TASS/Viktor Chavain
Seventy nine forest fires were raging on more than 13,500 hectares in five Siberian regions. The Irkutsk region and the Krasnoyarsk territory were hit most severely with 8,400 and 4,900 hectares burning, the press service of the Siberian Federal District's Forestry Department reported on Thursday.

Forty nine fires on more than 6,000 hectares were extinguished on Wednesday in Buryatia, the Altai, Trans-Baikal and Krasnoyarsk territories and the Irkutsk, Novosibirsk and Tomsk regions, where 1,860 firefighters, including smoke jumpers, and 30 aircraft fought the blaze.

The fires were caused mainly by carelessness of people and thunderstorms.

There have been 6,390 forest fires on 1,156,000 hectares in Siberia since the beginning of the warm season

Phoenix

Mandatory evacuations ordered as crews battle fire near Vernal, Utah

vernal,utah
© Sarah Richens
Officials said a wildfire is burning on about 700 acres 10 miles north of Vernal, and they said structures are threatened and mandatory evacuations are in progress.

Kelsey Birchell, a fire information officer with the Bureau of Land Management, did not say how many people are being evacuated but did say the evacuations are mandatory; they are calling the blaze the Taylor Mountain Road Fire.

Fire officials tweeted that the evacuations are for Taylor Mountain Road and Steinaker Reservoir, and they stated Highway 191 is under vehicle restrictions.

As of about 4:30, 20 engines, one type 1 helicopter, three heavy air tankers and various other resources have been dispatched to the fire. Photos from FOX 13 News viewers show the scene.

Phoenix

San Francisco Bay Area wildfire spreads to 3,200 acres

Napa wildfire
© KRON 4
The Butts Fire burning in the North Bay has spread from Napa County into Lake County early Wednesday morning. Smoke from the 3,200 acre wild fire can be seen across much of the northern and central parts of the Bay Area.

By Wednesday morning, the fire remained just 30% contained.

About 200 homes are part of the mandatory evacuations that remain in effect from the west side of the 7800 block of Butts Canyon Rd to north of Snell Valley Rd including the Berryessa Estates.

"Right now they're not bad," one Calfire worker tells KRON 4โ€ฒs Jackie Sissel Wednesday morning. "Yesterday they looked pretty bad with the wind. It looks like it is a fuels driven fire with the drought that we're experiencing now."

The fire broke out early Tuesday afternoon off Butts Canyon Rd in Pope Valley. That's about ten miles southeast of Middletown. Aetna Springs Road is now closed in the area. Butts Canyon Road is also closed between Snell Valley and Aetna Springs roads.


Phoenix

Wildfire sparks evacuations on Navajo Nation, 11,000 acres burned

Assayii Lake Fire
© UnknownThe Assayii Lake Fire had consumed 11,000 acres on the Navajo Nation and caused the evacuation of two communities.
Two communities have been evacuated on the Navajo Nation as firefighters struggle to get a blaze under control, hampered by "high winds and extreme fire behavior," according to KOB News out of New Mexico.

The Assayii Lake Fire had burned 11,000 acres in the Chuska Mountains as of Monday June 16, and by nightfall the Sheep Springs and Naschitti communities were being evacuated. About 50 residences were threatened, four structures destroyed, and damage was still being assessed on Monday night into Tuesday morning, according to a press release from Southwest Incident Management Team 3.

"For safety reasons, the general public is encouraged not to travel on access roads leading to the Bowl Canyon Recreation Area," the news release said. "Road closures in the area are Rt. 134 at Sheep Springs to Crystal Boarding School and Rt. 30 at Mexican Springs."

The human-caused fire was sparked on June 13, 10 miles northeast of Navajo, New Mexico, the Incident Management Team said. The fire was being fought by 23 crews, 15 engines, six helicopters, two bulldozers and 593 personnel. About 700 firefighters were due to arrive on Monday evening, reported NBC affiliate KOB News out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Wind conditions were expected to continue through Tuesday.