House Fire Sparks Calif. Brush Blaze

TAHOE CITY, Calif. – A house fire sparked a blaze Saturday on Lake Tahoe’s west shore, destroying four other homes and forcing evacuations, authorities said.

The wind-whipped, 15-acre blaze began near the resort community of Sunnyside just south of Tahoe City, Placer County sheriff’s deputies said. No injuries were reported.

The initial house was fully engulfed when crews arrived and the fire spread to nearby structures, causing the evacuation of an unknown number of homes and businesses, deputies said.

In all, five homes and one outbuilding have been destroyed, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Barbara Rebiskie said.

The fire appeared to be slowing Saturday evening, and most of those evacuated were returning to their homes, Rebiskie said. Firefighters expect to have the fire contained at just 35 acres, she said.

Flames were fanned by wind gusts up to 30 mph, and the National Weather Service was calling for similar gusts through midnight Saturday.

The blaze is about 20 miles north of South Lake Tahoe, where a wildfire that began June 24 destroyed 254 homes and charred more than 3,000 acres. It took firefighters eight days to contain the fire, at a cost of $12.1 million.

Meanwhile, a resort featuring a century-old hunting lodge built by Buffalo Bill Cody just outside Yellowstone National Park in northwest Wyoming reopened as a second day of rain dampened a wildfire smoldering nearby.

Jack McDonald, weekend manager at the Pahaska Tepee Resort, said the lodge reopened Friday night and had a few guests Saturday.

The fire has burned close to 30 square miles in the park and in neighboring Shoshone National Forest.

Montana authorities issued evacuation orders Saturday for about 120 homes in the Evaro area 16 miles north of Missoula, and for about 30 homes in the Bitterroot Valley, after wind fanned wildfires and sent some into new territory.

The fire threatening Evaro has burned 6,275 acres, or nearly 10 square miles, since lightning started the blaze Tuesday. Heavy smoke and other safety concerns shut down a stretch of U.S. 93 on Saturday.

In Bitterroot Valley, a fire had burned about 13,000 acres, or 20 square miles, since it began with lightning July 31.

Firefighters in central Idaho worked Saturday to protect about 35 homes – including one worth about $10 million – under voluntary evacuation orders after a fire fanned by winds jumped a road about eight miles west of the resort community of Ketchum.

It was unclear when the 3,500-acre fire started or what caused it, but no injuries or destroyed buildings were reported, said Blair Choate, a dispatcher for the city of Ketchum.

Dozens of homes around Frenchtown, Mont., were evacuated ahead of a wildfire that has burned seven square miles since Tuesday. Major work Saturday included establishing a bulldozer line to defend U.S. 93 and the community of Evaro from the fire.

On Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a fire that has burned about 28 square miles in Luce County was 65 percent contained. A lightning strike is suspected of starting the wildfire Aug. 2.

"We have turned the corner on this fire," said Scott Heather, fire supervisor for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

A fire in Southern California’s Los Padres National Forest has burned 171,750 acres of wilderness, or more than 268 square miles. It burned more than 16,300 acres of backcountry overnight but remained well within firebreaks set a mile or more ahead of the flames, fire spokesman Victor Gutierrez said. The fire was 59 percent contained.