National Interagency Fire Center

BASTROP, Texas (Reuters) - Bastrop calls itself the Heart of the Lost Pines, but now the Texas state park is the place where the pines were lost.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A brush fire ignited by a fatal small-plane crash near the mountain town of Tehachapi, north of Los Angeles, forced hundreds of homes to be evacuated on Monday and left some 8,600 acres charred by nightfall in its second day.

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Sixteen firefighters in Idaho held their own on Tuesday against a fierce wildfire that forced dozens of their colleagues to retreat as it raged along the Montana border, devouring 18,000 acres of rugged forest.

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Sixteen firefighters in Idaho held their own on Tuesday against a fierce wildfire that forced dozens of their colleagues to retreat as it raged along the Montana border, devouring 18,000 acres of rugged forest.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - An investigation has been opened into the death of a firefighter who died while battling a blaze during a Texas heat wave while on his first assignment for a Utah-based "Hot Shot" fire team.

Epic floods, massive wildfires, drought and the deadliest tornado season in 60 years are ravaging the United States, with scientists warning that climate change will bring even more extreme weather.

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Heavy rain, easing winds and lower temperatures helped crews battling wildfires that have torched dozens of homes and scorched thousands of acres in Texas and the Southwest, authorities said on Thursday.

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Heavy rain, easing winds and lower temperatures helped crews battling wildfires that have torched dozens of homes and scorched thousands of acres in Texas and the Southwest, authorities said on Thursday.

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Rains over east Texas on Wednesday gave firefighters some relief in battling a devastating wildfire that has displaced 1,800 people and destroyed dozens of homes, authorities said.

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The unexpected flare-up of a wildfire in east Texas on Tuesday triggered more evacuations in an area northwest of Houston where some 1,800 people already have been displaced.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla (Reuters) - Florida's tough wildfire season has claimed the lives of two firefighters as the tinder-dry state on Tuesday battled more than 400 active blazes.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Severe drought conditions across eastern Colorado and the western half of Kansas and Oklahoma are worsening the outlook for more wild fires in the region, climatologists said.

DENVER (Reuters) - Evacuations were lifted on Friday for thousands of homeowners who fled a wind-stoked wildfire southeast of Denver, but fire managers warned much of eastern Colorado remains at high risk for wildfires because of drought-like conditions.

Environmental worries place scrutiny on wildfire retardant drops in Colorado and the West. Lost in the images of aircraft dropping giant red plumes of retardant on a Colorado wildfire this week is the fact that the practice may not be legal under federal environmental laws.

SW Idaho fires destroy 3 homes, threaten others as wind fans flames. Three homes burned and dozens of others were evacuated Wednesday as a wind-whipped grassfire northwest of Idaho's capital city expanded to thousands of acres and threatened rural subdivisions. No injuries were reported.

Residents of more than 1,000 homes advised to evacuate because of wildfire near Flagstaff, AZ. Residents of more than 1,000 homes just north of Flagstaff, Ariz., are being advised to evacuate, as the second wildfire to hit the forested city in two days rages out of control.

FAA decides Boise Airport can keep air-traffic control system, halting planned move to Utah. Boise Airport will keep the sophisticated air-traffic control system that federal aviation officials had intended to relocate and fold into operations based in Salt Lake City.

National fire center forecasts more wildfires in northern Rockies after little snow. The northwestern United States enter wildfire season with drier-than-normal conditions following a mild winter that left little snow.

Firefighting plane headed to N.M. crashes in Utah, killing pilot and 2 crew members. A converted military plane crashed Saturday in heavy fog in the mountains that frame the Salt Lake valley, killing three members of a private firefighting company, authorities said.

A converted military plane crashed Saturday in heavy fog in the mountains that frame the Salt Lake valley, killing three members of a private firefighting company, authorities said.