BOISE, Idaho
(Reuters) - Uncontrolled blazes roaring across the U.S. West converged
to form even larger fires Sunday, causing what one senior U.S.
official called "a perfect storm" of tinderbox conditions,
high winds, and forests thick with fuel.
"It is
tragic what's happened out there," Agriculture Secretary
Dan Glickman told Fox News Sunday as fire officials reported a
total of more than 1.6 million acres ablaze in 13 western states.
Nightmare
weather conditions have combined to bring about a worst-case scenario
for U.S. firefighters, much as converging hurricanes made for
disaster in the recent book and movie "The Perfect Storm",
Glickman said.
"We have
the hottest driest weather in perhaps 50 years, we have thousands
of lightning strikes an hour, we have 300 new fires every day
in the West, largely because of lightning strikes," he said.
In Montana,
one of the worst hit states, officials said two major fires burning
near the Bitterroot National Forest had combined to form one monster
255,000 blaze.
"That's
a very large fire now that they have joined, and obviously the
containment efforts between the two fires weren't successful,"
said Marine Corps Major Curtis Hill, a spokesman for the National
Interagency Fire Center in Boise.
"The
fires have burned into one big, major area now. But the good side
is that there are two teams working the same fire at this point,"
Hill said, adding that other, smaller blazes were also likely
to join together.
Other major
fires were reported burning in Idaho, Washington, and South Dakota,
while gusty winds and hot, dry weather remained in the forecast
for much of the U.S. West through early this week.
With some
25,000 people involved in the firefighting effort and a total
of more than 5.8 million acres scorched to date, state and federal
officials were taking a new look at the possible policy implications
of this year's inferno.
Glickman said
that the traditional U.S. approach to forest fires may simply
have run its course.
"The
convergence of that hot, dry weather...coupled with a policy of
Congress and the administration for nearly 100 years of suppressing
virtually every forest fire has created an environment where the
fuels that are available for burning are greater than they might
have been 500 to 600 years ago," he said, adding that President
Clinton had asked him and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to
develop a new firefighting strategy.
Montana Gov.
Marc Racicot, who has already closed a total of 30 of the state's
56 counties to anyone without a special use permit, said his state
was now paying the price for years of neglect by state and federal
officials.
"The
fact is everybody was warned of this...we have not attached the
right priority to these issues," the governor told Fox News
Sunday. "We're beyond $100 million in fire fighting expenses,
and that's just suppression costs. We have no idea yet what's
going to happen to the people of Montana in terms of economic
losses."
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