Overnight rain and cooler temperatures slowed a wildfire that had raced out of a canyon, destroyed at least 30 houses and killed a homeowner who went back to try to save his belongings, a fire official said Monday , according to AP. The change in weather gave firefighters a chance to shore up their fire lines, though conditions could shift again for the worse, state wildland fire coordinator Joe Lowe told crews at a morning briefing held in light rain. «This fire is not over yet,» he cautioned. «This fire could come back to life again.» The blaze was started by lightning on Saturday, and by Monday it had covered an estimated 11 square miles (28 1/2 square kilometers) just southwest of Hot Springs, on the southern side of the Black Hills. It was 20 percent contained and crews expected to have it fully contained by Thursday. Other fires blackened the landscape in California, Utah, Nevada, Washington, Colorado, Montana and Oregon, many of them also started by lightning and fueled by the dry conditions, made worse by a heat wave that sizzled across the West last week. In addition to the death in South Dakota, smoke from a major Utah fire was blamed for two deaths in a weekend motorcycle accident, and another blaze still active in Utah killed three people last week. Crews in California's eastern Sierra Nevada gained ground against a fire that had charred at least 37,000 acres (14,974 hectares), or 58 square miles (150 square kilometers), in the Inyo National Forest. That fire was 55 percent contained Monday after cooler temperatures and lighter wind allowed firefighters to make their first real progress, forestry officials said.
