Fire managers worried that lightning could spark more blazes in the West, while investigators tried to determine what caused a helicopter delivering water to firefighters in California, killing the pilot, REPORTED AP The chopper, which was carrying a large water container to refill firefighters' hand-pump backpacks, went down in Klamath National Forest on Monday in «extremely rugged» mountains, said Duane Lyon, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman. Some firefighters saw the helicopter crash and reported it to emergency dispatchers. The pilot, who was not identified, was under contract with the Forest Service but was not a government employee, Lyon said. The pilot was the only person on board. More than 1,100 fire crews were battling the cluster of about 30 lightning-sparked fires covering 14 square miles (36 sq. kilometers) near the Oregon state line. The fires, which started July 10, had threatened up to 550 homes near the town of Happy Camp, but none has been destroyed. The blazes were more than 20 percent surrounded Monday. Fire crews wrestled with dozens of huge wildfires across the West on Monday, primarily in Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Utah, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Fire managers were worried that dry lightning storms in some of those states could spark further blazes, though the systems were expected to bring rain Tuesday, the agency said. In Utah, a fire that started Thursday was about 15 percent contained, said fire information officer Michelle Fidler. But five small towns were evacuated, officials said. Another blaze the consumed 14 square miles (36 sq. kilometers) in southwestern Utah's Zion National Park was 40 percent contained. Elsewhere, mandatory evacuation orders remained in effect for the tiny town of Jarbidge, Nevada, where a fire of more than 880 square miles (2,279 sq. kilometers) on the Idaho-Nevada line was burning, fire information officer Bill Watt said. While roughly 90 percent of the fire was in Idaho, the most active part was in Nevada and was 15 percent contained, he said. A wildfire in southern Idaho covered more than 880 square miles (2,279 sq. kilometers) , growing by about 200 square miles (518 sq. kilometers) in just 24 hours during the weekend. Fire officials said it threatened tracking and radar facilities at Mountain Home Air Force bombing and firing range, which is used by pilots training for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Montana, a nearly 14-square-mile (36-sq. kilometer) fire burning on the edge of Lewis and Clark National Forest led to an evacuation order for 40 summer homes.
