Bootleg Fire

Firefighters have gotten more control over a wildfire in Hawaii that forced thousands of people to evacuate over the weekend and destroyed at least two homes on the Big Island, but officials warned strong winds Monday could raise the danger again.

In the next few years, scientists will scrutinize the Sycan Marsh to see how the Bootleg Fire reacted to different types of forest management, which will help people understand how to tame wildfires.

Cooler weather on Tuesday, July 27, 2021, helped calm two gigantic wildfires in the U.S. West, but a tally of property losses mounted as authorities got better access to a tiny California community savaged by flames last weekend and to a remote area of southern Oregon where the nation's largest blaze is burning.

Oregon’s explosive summer of wildfire is threatening to escalate further, with thunderstorms and lightning set to spur more of the blazes that have torn through much of a parched, dangerously hot U.S. West this year.

Erratic winds and dry lightning added to the dangers for crews in parched Oregon forests battling the nation's largest wildfire, just one of dozens burning across several Western states.