Wildfires rage through western America

A blaze in southwestern South Dakota killed one person and destroyed 20 homes Sunday. Hundreds of people were evacuated in the paths of fires in Nevada and Washington state.

Residents of about 50 homes had fled the wildfire burning near Hot Springs that also had injured two firefighters, state and federal officials said. Roughly 8 square miles (21 square kilometers) had burned since the fire started Saturday.

The 8,000-acre (3,237-hectare) wildfire in northern Nevada was threating up to eight blocks of homes in the town of Winnemucca, about 170 miles (274 kilometers) east of Reno.

"It's right up to the south edge of town," said U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman Jamie Thompson. "The fire definitely poses a danger to parts of the town."

The Utah Highway Patrol on Sunday reopened a 100-mile (160-kilometer) stretch of Interstate 15 and 25 miles (40 kilometers) of I-70 that were closed when a 250-square-mile (647-square-kilometer)fire jumped the highways and filled the air with dense smoke. Poor visibility was blamed for several accidents, including a motorcycle crash that killed two people.

Other Western fires blackened the landscape in California, Colorado, Arizona, Idaho and Oregon.

The largest Nevada fire had blackened 36 square miles (93 square kilometers), or 23,000 acres (9,308 hectares), along the Idaho state line, said Mike Brown, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. It was 10 percent contained Saturday, officials said.

The South Dakota wildfire grew overnight driven by erratic wind.

South Dakota's firefighting resources were reduced Saturday when a single-engine air tanker crashed while fighting a fire on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The pilot walked away from the wreck, according to the Northern Great Plains Joint Information Center.

High wind in central Washington state during the night spread a brush fire that threatened homes outside Wenatchee. By Sunday morning, 250 to 270 homes had been evacuated and more were under alert. At least three outbuildings were destroyed.

The fire in central Utah had swept across parts of two counties, charring an estimated 160,000 acres (64,751 hectares), or 250 square miles (647 square kilometers), fire information officer LaCee Bartholomew said.

"The fire laid down a little overnight, but it's still active," she said Sunday. "We don't have an accurate updated acreage, but it did grow."

In California, more than 400 firefighters battled a blaze that had covered 17,000 acres (6,880 hectares)of the 2 million-acre (810,000-hectare)Inyo National Forest east of Yosemite National Park, forest spokeswoman Nancy Upham said Saturday. Firefighters were searching for and evacuating hikers and backpackers on and near the popular trail to Mount Whitney, tallest peak in the lower 48 states.

At least 200 people were evacuated from the small town of Independence, California, and a section of highway that runs along the eastern spine of the Sierra Nevada mountain range was closed, officials said.

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Author`s name Angela Antonova
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