A firefighter works to extinguish the Lone Rock fire burning in Spray, Oregon, U.S. July 21, 2024 in this screengrab obtained from a video. Oregon State Fire Marshal/Handout via REUTERS
Winds and lightning strikes have sparked and fanned wildfires across the Pacific Northwest this week, including the largest fire in the United States, which was rapidly expanding near the Oregon-Idaho border on Friday.
The Durkee Fire near Huntington, Oregon, about 100 miles (160 km) north of Boise, Idaho, has scorched 600 square miles (1,553 square km), an area more than half the size of Rhode Island’s land mass, authorities said. It is threatening several towns.