Fire, Evacuation | featured news

A forest fire that continues to burn in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Azusa forced the evacuation of several campgrounds and other facilities that typically attract up to 12,000 visitors on Labor Day weekend, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman said.

Nearly 3,000 residents were evacuated from the heart of Munich on Tuesday before explosives experts detonated the remains of an undetonated, 550-pound World War II bomb, Andy Eckardt of NBC News reports. Bales of straw which had been placed around the bomb to cushion the shock of the detonation were set ablaze and thrown through the air by the detonation, according to the European Pressphoto Agency. Some of them landed on the roofs of neighboring buildings and ignited fires.

As hundreds of residents in Washington and California were allowed to return to homes once threatened by major wildfires, some people were told to evacuate as encroaching blazes neared Idaho towns.

Crews made progress overnight against a Northern California wildfire that has grown to more than 4 1/2 square miles and forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes. The Wye Fire east of the community of Clearlake Oaks in Lake County was 25 percent contained early Monday morning. State fire officials say it is threatening 480 homes in Spring Valley and has already destroyed three structures. It was not immediately clear whether those were homes or outbuildings.

A monster Colorado wildfire raging near some of the most visited tourist areas in the state took a turn for the worse on Tuesday as hot winds pushed flames north, prompting the evacuation of 7,000 more people, officials said.

Firefighters on Sunday were fighting wildfires that have spread quickly in parched forests in Colorado and New Mexico, forcing hundreds of people from their homes and the evacuation of wolves from a sanctuary.

Lisa Carpenter defied evacuation orders when a massive wildfire in eastern Arizona crept closer to the RV park she manages, but at one point she had second thoughts about her decision.

Stiff winds whipped up a gigantic blaze in the mountains of eastern Arizona on Monday, forcing the evacuation of a third resort town and casting a smoky haze over states as far away as Iowa....

Two Arizona wildfires have consumed more than 200,000 acres and prompted evacuations, officials said.

The bus was evacuating prisoners from a penitentiary in the fire’s path when it got caught in the flames, rescue workers reported.