Calif. Blaze Contained, Mudslides Feared

By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ

YUCCA VALLEY, Calif. – Firefighters were finally able to contain a nearly 100-square-mile blaze in the desert and rugged San Bernardino National Forest, but on Wednesday with rain in the forecast there was a new fear: mudslides.

The National Weather Service issued a flood watch through the week in the Mojave Desert and parts of the San Bernardino National Forest, where nearly two weeks of fire left bare earth and ashes that could create mudslides with enough new moisture.

Temperatures some 20 degrees cooler than the triple-digit highs of last week helped firefighters contain the blaze Tuesday night. The fire and a second blaze, with which it merged last week, had charred a combined 131 square miles.

Ignited by lightning July 9, the first blaze destroyed 58 houses and mobile homes, dozens of outbuildings and scores of vehicles. It was linked to 17 injuries and one death.

The second fire, about 24,210 acres and 38 square miles, was burning in low-elevation brush and on rocky ridges dotted with pines killed by drought and a bark beetle infestation. It was 57 percent contained Wednesday.

Elsewhere, rain during the night helped slow a fire near Wellington, Nev., close to the California line. The fire had covered nearly 10 square miles and crews hoped to have it fully surrounded Friday, officials said.

Strong wind in central Montana pushed range fires past containment lines. Several fires north of Jordan had blackened about 150 square miles, or about 98,000 acres, said Sharon Sweeney, a spokeswoman for the elite team that assumed management of the fires Wednesday.

About 60 buildings, including 20 homes, were listed as threatened by the fires, which earlier destroyed an outbuilding, she said.

A wildfire on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation south of Bismarck, N.D., came within about 2,000 feet of a rancher’s home, but firefighters saved the home and got the blaze “pretty well contained,” Sioux County Sheriff Frank Landeis said Wednesday. The blaze had blackened about 15 square miles, he said.

In northern Minnesota, a fire in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area wilderness had spread across about 34 square miles, much of it covered by dead trees blown down by a storm in 1999.

The fire was at least a couple of miles away from people and property, officials said. Crews worked to keep the blaze away from the Gunflint Trail, a main entry point to the popular canoeing and camping region.

In the windy West, another fire exploded to 5,000 acres, nearly 8 square miles, in the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge on the Arizona and California sides of the Colorado River, officials said Wednesday. The fire threatened a few homes in California and briefly cut power to an estimated 500 to 600 residents in Cibola, Ariz., said Robin Hansen of the Arizona State Land Department.

Aircraft were called in Wednesday to help fight a fast-growing wildfire that had charred just over a square mile in southwestern Colorado’s Ute Mountain Tribal Park, site of ancient rock art and cliff dwellings. There were no immediate threats to archaeological sites or buildings at the park.

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