By MARTIN GRIFFITH
Associated Press Writer

RENO, Nev. - As a heat wave made parched terrain even drier, wildfires dotted the West on Saturday, forcing authorities to evacuate homes and close highways and wilderness areas.

Hundreds of people in Winnemucca were ordered to leave their homes Saturday night because of an 8,000-acre wildfire, one of more than a dozen blazes that charred a combined 55 square miles in northern Nevada.

A 100-mile stretch of Interstate 15 in central Utah was closed when a 160,000-acre wildfire jumped the highway, and other fires burned in California, Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

The fire near Winnemucca, a town of 8,000 about 170 miles east of Reno, threatened up to eight blocks of homes and an electrical substation, said U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman Jamie Thompson.

“It’s right up to the south edge of town,” he said. “The fire definitely poses a danger to parts of the town. It’s certainly got everyone’s attention.”

The largest of the Nevada fires burned 36 square miles, or 23,000 acres, along the Idaho border, said Mike Brown, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. It was 10 percent contained Saturday, officials said. A firefighter was treated at and released from a hospital in Twin Falls, Idaho, with burns.

Another fire blackened 11 square miles, or 7,000 acres, about five miles southwest of Carlin. It burned two mobile homes and several smaller structures, and shut down a section of Interstate 80 for six hours overnight, fire information officer Tracie Winfrey said. On Saturday morning, the fire was 40 percent contained.

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