Wildfire warning raised to top level

BOISE, Idaho -- Cooler temperatures and calmer winds helped firefighters make some progress on dozens of wildfires burning in the bone-dry West, including one that forced a tiny southwest Idaho town to evacuate on Thursday.

The break wasn't expected to last long. Dry, windy weather, and temperatures over 100, were forecast for the next seven days.

Thursday, the nation's wildfire preparedness was raised to its highest level; the West had been at level four for only a few weeks when officials decided to raise it to level five.

A blaze that burned nearly 200 square miles near the Nevada state line threatened the town of Murphy Hot Springs and its 50 homes, said Brock Astle with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Residents were told to leave because of fear they wouldn't have a way to escape if the fire spread, similar to the evacuation of the small town of Jarbidge, nestled in a tight canyon near the Idaho line.

"The bottom line is, if the fire goes into the canyon, the likelihood that it can be stopped is slim to none," Elko County Sheriff Dale Lotspeich said.

Crews contained a fire that had burned 14 square miles near the Idaho National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy officials said.

In southwestern Utah, the backcountry of Zion National Park was closed because of the threat of wildfires. Two new large fires were reported in the state, in addition to three already burning on about 640 square miles of grass, sage and timber.

"Over the last four days we've had over 1,400 new fires start" around the West, said Ken Frederick, a spokesman for the Boise-based National Interagency Fire Center. Though many of the fires were caught and contained while they were still small, a number have grown substantially, he said.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management put Nevada on the top of its priority list. The federal designation brought in resources from neighboring states to assist firefighters, who acknowledged they were stretched thin by the blazes that stretch across most of the northern third of Nevada.

Firefighters were getting a handle on a wildfire that had threatened hundreds of homes on the edge of Reno. It was about 15 percent contained and some of the 600 firefighters on scene were being dispatched to other fires.

In Northern California, overnight downpours helped crews battling nine fires burning about 17 ½ square miles near the Oregon border.