Residents of two California towns were under mandatory evacuation orders on Thursday as a burgeoning wildfire swept through drought-parched mountains, officials said.
The fire in the mountains of San Bernardino County east of Los Angeles was among scores of wildfires raging along the U.S. West Coast , from Alaska through California , in areas hit by drought and suffering record-low snowpack.
In Idaho , officials issued a health advisory tied to extreme heat, as weather forecasters predicted record-breaking highs. The northern end of the Sacramento Valley in California was also unusually hot with 111 Fahrenheit (43.9 Celsius) reported in Redding.
In Southern California , firefighters were losing ground to the long-burning San Bernardino County blaze. It swelled to 23,199 acres (9,388 hectares) in the face of gusting winds, according to fire-tracking website InciWeb, which pulls information from multiple agencies.
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The blaze, now nine days old, prompted evacuation orders late on Wednesday for the towns of Burns Canyon and Rimrock and a voluntary evacuation for Pioneertown as containment dropped to 21 percent. The fire had been about one-third contained the day before.
Authorities did not say how many people were ordered to leave but some 7,000 structures were threatened.
Roadways and campgrounds remain closed and about 360 campers were sent home from the Lake Williams area on Wednesday.
