Firefighters Across the West Tackle 75 Lightning-Strike Fires

Hundreds of firefighters from throughout the West battled blazes Saturday in the dry forests of Northern California and in Oregon, including one that forced the evacuation of campers.

A checkerboard of 75 lightning-sparked fires, which started last week, were still burning across the Klamath National Forest of Northern California on Saturday as some 2,000 firefighters sought to prevent them from merging into a firestorm.

“It’s a race against time, a race against nature” to get a handle on the fires, said Pat Kaunert of the U.S. Forest Service.

An estimated 5,000 acres of forest had burned in the Klamath forest near the California-Oregon border.

The fires did not threaten any inhabited areas, but the Forest Service said they could endanger old-growth forest and the habitat of some endangered animals.

Lightning also has started fires in the Deschutes and Siskiyou national forests in Oregon, but most were out Saturday or under control at less than one acre.

Still burning was the largest Oregon blaze, the Four Corners Fire south of Bend, which had swept across 1,680 acres by Saturday.

The fire had earlier forced the evacution of more than 100 people from two small rustic resorts and at least eight campgrounds, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Greg McClarren said. About 900 firefighters were at work on that fire.

No injuries were reported in Oregon, but one firefighter suffered a broken leg parachuting in to fight the California blaze.

In southern Arizona, the lightning-sparked Rattlesnake fire in the Chiricahua Mountains near Tucson was 80% contained after burning 26,000 acres.

Officials expected to have that blaze under control by today, said Sarah Davis, fire information officer for the Coronado National Forest.

About 230 firefighters were working on the fire, she said.