Western wildfires affect national icons
Firefighters battled wildfires across the western USA on Sunday. No serious injuries were reported, but two of the fires limited access to a couple of landmarks — Palomar Observatory in Southern California and the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park in Montana.
A third wildfire, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Northern California, had burned more than 2 square miles of drought-affected timber.
That fire, which broke out Saturday afternoon about 45 miles northeast of Sacramento, threatened hundreds of homes and forced evacuations in parts of the Nevada County foothill towns of Red Dog, Chalk Hill, You Bet and Cascade Shores.
At the other end of the state, a small wildfire that ate through dry timber in the Cleveland National Forest was 20% contained. The 167-acre blaze, which broke out Friday, was not threatening structures but forced the closure of Palomar in north San Diego County on Saturday. The observatory reopened Sunday.
Steve Flanders, spokesman for the observatory, said its parking area was used as a staging ground by fire authorities.
The observatory, which is operated by Cal Tech, includes the 200-inch Hale Telescope, which is housed in a white, domed Art Deco-style building completed in the late 1940s.
Firefighters made progress against a wildfire near the state's Napa Valley wine country. Fire officials ended all evacuation orders — residents had fled about 50 homes when the fire broke out Wednesday — and road closures.
The Napa-area blaze burned more than 10 square miles of drought-parched countryside near Lake Berryessa, about 45 miles east of the famed wine country.
Far to the northwest, in Glacier National Park, fire warnings were downgraded as weather improved and more firefighters arrived to battle a blaze about 6 miles east of Logan Pass along the west side of St. Mary Lake.
About 570 firefighters worked the blaze, which covered about 5 square miles.
Although the fire closed 18 miles of the park's storied Going-to-the-Sun Road — from Big Bend on the west side of the Continental Divide to St. Mary Visitor Center — most of the vast national park was open and unaffected by the fire. Park officials encouraged visits.
The 53-mile Sun Road, the only one spanning the park, is a National Historic Landmark and a triumph in highway engineering and construction.
The Glacier fire destroyed only one structure, a historic patrol cabin.