Fire crews keep eye on weather as heat, wind build in parts of West

SPOKANE - Firefighters in Washington kept a wary eye Tuesday on rising temperatures and winds that threatened to expand what's already the largest wildfire on record in the state.

Similar concerns existed in Southern California, where temperatures up to 106 were forecast for interior valleys and deserts - conditions that could accelerate some of the 16 fires that are still burning in the state but posing little serious risk of major destruction.

Elsewhere, massive fires produced poor air quality in Idaho and parts of Washington, Oregon and Montana. The smoke was so thick in northern Washington that firefighting aircraft were grounded before resuming operations Tuesday.

"It's been a nightmare to breathe," Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers said. "You couldn't see nothing with the smoke."

Conditions were improving and Rogers said Tuesday he could see the sun for the first time in a week.

The U.S. is in the midst of one of its worst fire seasons on record, with about 11,600 square miles scorched so far. It's only the sixth worst going back to 1960, but it's the most acreage burned by this date in a decade, so the ranking is sure to rise.

So many fires are burning in Washington that managers are summoning help from abroad, and 200 U.S. troops from a base in Tacoma in the first such use of active-duty soldiers in nine years.

Firefighters were grateful that 71 reinforcements arrived from Australia and New Zealand to help lead efforts to contain the Okanogan fires along the border of Canada.

"The Aussies are coming!" said Rick Isaacson, a spokesman for the firefighting effort.

The fires, which have claimed the lives of three firefighters, grew by 2.6 square miles Monday night and have now burned 403 square miles. A total of 1,345 people were battling the flames.

The National Weather Service issued a red-flag warning for the area, saying temperatures were expected to climb into the 90s as humidity dropped and winds gusted to 20 mph. Thunderstorms were possible later in the week.

"Hot, dry and unstable conditions will create an environment conducive to increased growth on existing wildfires," the weather service said.

Fires also were burning in Montana and Idaho, where an atmospheric inversion was holding heavy smoke over western Montana, robbing wildfires of oxygen and preventing the sun from heating ground fuels.

In central Idaho, a 12-square-mile fire burning in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness has drawn about 30 firefighters to protect a bridge at Campbell's Ferry and structures on private property.

Seventeen large fires are burning in Idaho, the most in the nation, the National Interagency Fire Center said.

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Keith Ridler contributed to this story from Boise.