WIDESPREAD FIRES

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29264, 23 July 1960, Page 3

WIDESPREAD FIRES

30,000-Acre Oregon Blaze (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) BAKER (Oregon), July 21. Thousands of acres of the Pacific coastal north-west range and forest were aflame today after a period of 100-degree heat, lightning storms, and gusty winds flecked with whirlwinds. More than 250 fires were reported in eastern Oregon alone, with scores more in Washington and Idaho. The biggest was a 30,000-acre fire swirling over knee-deep grass along the Oregon-Idaho border. However, fires in the Tumatilla and Wallowa-Whitman national forests of eastern Oregon covered thousands of acres and several threatened to merge into giant conflagrations. Governor R. Smylie, of Idaho, declared an emergency and the Idaho board of examiners made special funds available to fight the fires.

Governor M. Hatfield, of Oregon put the National Guard and transportation at the disposal of the Forest Service to rush manpower to the eastern Oregon fires. The farm community of Woodland, near' Kamiah, Idaho, was threatened by a timber fire and families were evacuated. A Bureau of Land Management spokesman said the 30,000-acre fire -x a . rea of Ma rsing, Idaho, was definitely man-caused. He declined to elaborate. .