Western wildfires: California fire grows, forces evacuations

A huge forest fire that has been burning through rugged terrain in the San Bernardino Mountains for more than a week forced evacuations as it stretched northeast into the desert.

Officials say they had to temporarily ground air tankers for safety reasons after a hobbyist's drone flew over the fire, but flights resumed Thursday.

A wildfire has grown to more than 26 square miles in inaccessible terrain south of Lake Tahoe and has led to some voluntary evacuations Thursday, officials said.

No buildings have been damaged, but the small mountain town of Markleeville is under a voluntary evacuation warning, according to the Bureau of Land Management.

Wildfires have shown significant growth, but fire managers say there have been no new evacuations from threatened communities.

A wildfire scorching a remote part of southwestern Oregon has grown to more than 8 square miles, but hundreds of firefighters have worked to get it more than halfway contained.

Incident commander Doug Johnson said heat, lower humidity, gusty winds and possible thunderstorms are expected this week, which will test the containment lines.