By JOHN K. WILEY
The Associated Press
COLFAX, Wash. — Thousands of firefighters battling large wildfires in eastern Washington got an extra boost from a DC-10 jetliner capable of dropping as much as eight times more fire retardant than usual air tankers.
The plane, which flies 200 to 300 feet above the flames, had been on standby for most of the day waiting for skies to clear above more than 100 square miles of fires near Dayton.
About 50 miles southwest of Colfax, firefighters from Alaska joined others Friday from Arizona, Oregon and New Mexico battling the fires that have spread over huge areas of wheat fields, grasslands, brush and timber.
“Yesterday, we made a lot of progress because those winds stopped, and we made good progress today,” fire spokeswoman Koshare Lomnicki said.
The main fire was burning within a mile of the city’s southwestern edge, but many of the 300 people who were evacuated were being allowed to return to their homes Friday, she said.
Two homes were destroyed and 35 outbuildings were lost or damaged earlier this week by the lightning-caused fires.
A fire apparently started by a combine blackened about 6 square miles in the Palouse River canyon near Colfax, destroying a trestle and a grain elevator, officials said.
The blaze was about 70 percent contained, said Glenn Johnson, Whitman County emergency services spokesman.
Fire engines were stationed at two homes nearby as a precaution, but no other homes were in imminent danger, he said.
In Oregon, two ranchers were charged with setting blazes within existing fire areas. Harney County Sheriff David Glerup said he couldn’t provide information about their motives. The existing fires were burning on more than 150 square miles in sparsely populated eastern Oregon.
In California, firefighters contained a 40-acre blaze Friday on Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. The pop star was not at the ranch.
The blaze came within a quarter-mile of the main residence, but there were no injuries and Jackson’s menagerie of animals also were unharmed, said Santa Barbara County Fire spokesman Capt. Keith Cullom. The cause of the blaze was under investigation.
Firefighters in Nevada gained ground on wildfires that have blackened more than 78 square miles of rangeland in Elko County this week. No homes were directly threatened by any of the blazes Friday and no injuries were reported.