Marines and Army soldiers joined
the tens of thousands of firefighters at work in Western states
this summer. On Aug. 16, the National Interagency Fire Center in
Boise declared a maximum Level 5 Emergency, which authorizes the
use of military personnel.
The additional
firefighters were needed to combat the most intense fire season
since 1969. Already, more than 5 million acres have burned
nationwide, exceeding the summer of 1988 when much of Yellowstone
National Park burned. Wildfires have consumed more than 600 homes,
and federal, state and local agencies have spent $300 million
trying to put the flames out.
“We’ve had a
combination of a wet winter and spring, and a tremendous drying
trend that started in July coupled with lots of recent lightning
activity,” Don Smurthwaite of the National Interagency Fire Center
told AP. “You couldn’t write a prescription for a worse fire
situation.”
Some of the hot
spots:
* About 1,000 tourists were forced to
leave Mesa Verde National Park on Aug. 17 when a lightning-caused
fire burned right up to the visitor center and lodge. The park
remained closed for the next 11 days as crews fought the 5,000-acre
blaze.
* On the Warm Springs Reservation in
northern Oregon, the Simnasho Fire scorched 120,000 acres,
one-sixth of the tribe’s land. Ten homes were destroyed, but no one
injured. The fire follows heavy flooding on the reservation last
spring.
* Jared
Farmer
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A summer of smoke and ashes.
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