BILL MARTINEZ
Associated Press Writer
RIDGECREST, Calif. (AP) -- A bit of moisture helped firefighters make headway against a persistent Sierra Nevada wildfire, but scores of lightning strikes elsewhere ignited more blazes across already scorched Western states.
Forty-two large fires were burning close to 660,000 acres in Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.
In California's Sequoia National Forest, firefighters aided by rain increased the containment level of a 67,000-acre blaze -- one of the region's largest and most destructive -- from 15 percent to 40 percent, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Geri Adams said Tuesday night.
The fire, which has been burning since July 22, destroyed seven homes over the weekend in the isolated community of Kennedy Meadows, about 35 miles northwest of Ridgecrest.
``We had some precipitation last night that really helped the firefighters out, and our burnout operations were very successful,'' Adams said. ``The thunderstorms brought the humidity up and it's burning less quickly.''
AP World Wide Photos/Jeff Zimmerman
A firefighter stands in front of towering flames in Kennedy Meadows, Calif., part of a 63,270-acre inferno burning in and
around the Sequoia National Forest, late Monday evening, July 31, 2000. There are 54 handcrews, 104 engines, 8
helicopters, 12 bulldozers and 18 water tenders battling the fires that have consumed 16 structures and 67,000 acres of
brush and timber.
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But the weather didn't help everywhere. Most of the thunderstorms Tuesday provided no relief, and hot, dry conditions were expected to continue across most of the region for the next three or four days.
``We're not getting any rain at all. If it's raining it's not hitting the ground,'' said Ed Waldapfel, information officer for the fire center.
It wasn't immediately clear how many new fires lightning triggered across the West, but the fire center reported that more than 100 small fires in Montana's Bitterroot National Forest were ignited just on Tuesday. Other lightning-caused fires were reported near the Sierra Nevada fire and in Utah.
``We're at the end of a La Nina weather event this year and everything is critically dry,'' Waldapfel said. ``It's just a very combustible situation.''
Some 20,000 firefighters working across the West have begun receiving military reinforcements.
At Camp Pendleton, Calif., 500 Marines were receiving firefighting training to join crews on the lines of a blaze near the Idaho-Montana line by the end of the week.
Six hundred soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas, arrived Tuesday in Boise, Idaho, for training to fight a 15,000-acre blaze in west-central Idaho's Payette National Forest.
``I don't think anybody believes it will be enjoyable, but it's something to help the country,'' said Army Spc. Keith Weiss, who was among the soldiers dispatched to Idaho.
Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt called out the National Guard late Tuesday to assist firefighters there. He requested 80 guardsmen to serve as volunteers on fire crews and also asked for seven bulldozers, two helicopters and other equipment.
In California, residents who had evacuated from Kennedy Meadows, where seven homes burned earlier in the week, began to return home.
The intensity of the flames and the firefighters' determination were evident at the end of a bumpy, four-mile drive into a canyon, where Roy Harmon's home was still standing. Scorched earth revealed how the fire burned up to the front of the house before it was stopped.
``When I got 100 yards into the canyon I thought, 'There's no way in hell anything can still be standing,''' said Harmon.
Sam and Joyce Taggart's home also was left standing, but only a row of unscathed poplar trees relieved the view of a devastated landscape.
``Looking at it just knocks me out,'' Sam Taggart said.
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