American Notes THE WEST

Scorching temperatures, dry lightning storms and little rain have incinerated much of the West again this year. "At one point we had 43 major fires going simultaneously," said Arnold Hartigan of Idaho's Boise Interagency Fire Center, the nation's wildfire command post. Idaho has had 18 major fires burning across 187,000 acres, while Oregon had nine on 54,000 acres. California had two major fires that burned 23,000 acres, and Utah had one big blaze on 1,700 acres.

The Lowman fire, 75 miles northeast of Boise, destroyed 25 houses and businesses, including a resort lodge. Idaho Governor Cecil Andrus declared an extreme emergency to call in more than 300 National Guardsmen to help 9,000 fire fighters battling to control the burning land. Although the fires are not quite as bad as last year's, 462 million board feet of timber have been destroyed in the Boise National Forest alone.