Conditions prime for more blazes in West

Steve Geissinger

Wednesday, Aug. 25, 1999 | 4:46 a.m.

Lightning, wind, 100-degree heat and low humidity are fueling fire season in the West, where beleaguered firefighters face the threat of new blazes as vacationers head to the forests for late-summer camping.

"It's fire season all of a sudden," U.S. Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes said Wednesday.

Thousands of firefighters battled about 300 wildfires, caused mostly by lightning, in California, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Idaho. The blazes killed a California woman and burned at least 40,000 acres of brush and trees.

Hundreds of residents of the Antelope Valley in Nevada, 10 miles north of Reno, and in Butte County in northeastern California, were evacuated for up to a day. All had returned to their homes by Wednesday morning. Firefighters saved virtually all threatened structures.

Most of the blazes sparked by lightning since last weekend have been in Northern California, where National Weather Service forecasts worried firefighters.

"They're predicting some very serious conditions for what's going on now," said Karen Terrill, a California Department of Forestry spokeswoman. "It's supposed to remain hot and dry. And a new weather system is coming in that will include lightning with very little rain.

"We're also expecting winds gusting up to 25 mph over the weekend," she said. "And of course wind is the firefighters' worst enemy."

Federal and state fire officials said most of their crews and equipment already were committed to fires.

Federal firefighters have requested help from as far away as North Dakota and Tennessee, said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Katy Coulter.

The California Forestry Department has 75 percent of its 6,700 firefighters and fire engines battling fires. Cities and counties are also supplying engines and crews.

National Guard planes and helicopters supported state and federal air tankers.

Expecting a surge of late-summer campers, forest officials are warning vacationers that campfires are banned in some areas as part of fire safety restrictions that vary from forest to forest. Campers should check conditions before heading out.

In Nevada, one of four grass and sage brush fires threatened about 60 ranch homes in the Antelope Valley. The 4,500-acre fire was 80 percent contained Wednesday and residents were allowed to return.

In Oregon, a wildfire charred 5,000 acres of grass and brush on the Sheldon-Hart National Wildlife Refuge and an 1,100-acre fire was burning brush on federal land near Prineville.

In Northern California, heavy smoke from several blazes drifted through the Central Valley, including Sacramento, adding a choking haze to triple-digit heat in the state's capital city.

Michelle Marie Bruno, 36, of Oroville, was found burned to death in a vehicle Tuesday along a dirt road near Lake Oroville. Butte County authorities were investigating.

In the Stanislaus National Forest, about 700 firefighters carved a bare-earth control line around half of a 2,500-acre brush and timber blaze.

The fire forced authorities to close State Highway 120, about four miles east of Groveland, effectively shutting down that entrance to Yosemite National Park.

Fires also burned in the Shasta-Trinity National Forests, north and west of Redding, near Lake Shasta; in the Plumas National Forest; and in Tehama County, near Red Bluff.

Lightning caused fires that burned nearly 6,000 acres in two of Yosemite's wilderness areas. Federal policy bars interfering with natural fires unless they endanger inhabited areas.