New Fires Add to Toll in Oregon

BEND, Ore. —  New lightning fires were sparked in the Cascade Range on Monday as Army troops arrived to help battle blazes that have burned 100,000 acres in Oregon alone.

About a dozen new fires were spotted in an area where the desert meets a mountain range that includes the snowcapped Three Sisters.

Hazy smoke cleared just enough to allow a view of the mountains for the first time since fire moved into this area of central Oregon over the weekend, burning 18,000 acres of range land and destroying 19 homes.

The fire was 90% contained by midafternoon.

Meanwhile, about 500 Army mountain troops and support personnel hardened by firefighting in the Mendocino National Forest in Northern California flew into the Redmond Airport outside of Bend and prepared to move out.

In southern Oregon, a suspicious wildfire threatened about 20 rural homes west of the town of Sutherlin.

In all, about 18,000 people were fighting fires on more than 238,000 acres in Oregon, California, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Montana and Wyoming.

In central California, about 37,000 acres were ablaze in a remote area of Yosemite National Park and the Stanislaus National Forest.

In north-central Washington, flames burned across 10,000 acres on the Colville Indian Reservation. The fire was just 10% contained.

In central Idaho, high temperatures and low humidity allowed fires to grow to 28,000 acres in the Frank Church/River of No Return Wilderness area.