The agency said wildfires have burned 5.7 million acres this year, or about 8,900 square miles, an area approximately the size of New Hampshire. On Tuesday, Montana had 29 large fires on 613,000 acres, the fire center reported. More than a third of the blackened land lay in the Bitterroot Valley of southwestern Montana. Manpower remained in short supply Tuesday, as firefighters struggled against the massive host of wildfires. The shortage has affected the way agencies approach the blazes.
Crews spend two weeks on the fire lines and then get two days off.
The grueling schedule takes a toll. Weather forecasts for the rest of the week offered little encouragement for firefighters, with temperatures warming into the 90s. There was a chance of thunderstorms in California, southern Oregon, Idaho and Montana by midweek, according to a meteorologist in Boise, Idaho. In Idaho, the nation's largest wildfire continued to devour the Salmon-Challis National Forest. The fire had consumed about 159,000 acres and was about one-third contained.