Snow cools spread of Western wildfires

Marines begin pulling out

By Thom Patterson, CNN.com writer

BOISE, Idaho (CNN) -- Recent snowfall has slowed wildfires in the Rocky Mountain states, allowing firefighters to begin sending home troops who had been called up to tame the nation's worst wildfire season in a half century.

"It is definitely improving," said Priscilla Hammon, fire information officer for the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho. "Decreasing temperatures and increasing moisture levels are reducing fire activity, but burning coals can remain under snow banks for weeks. So it's far from over."

On Tuesday, firefighter coordinators began sending home U.S. Marines who had been called up to battle dozens of blazes this summer in several Western states. Troops were being relieved of duty slowly --100 per day from Idaho's Clear Creek Fire -- in case the threat suddenly worsens, Hammon said.

MESSAGE BOARD Nature's wrath

As of August 29, about 5,000 regular and national guard troops have been deployed this year to fight wildfires nationwide.

Snow has covered much of fire-charred areas of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Colorado, according to the NIFC Web site, which said 29 fires were burning Friday in nine states.

Other fire-plagued states listed on the Web site are Texas, California, Alabama, Nebraska and New Mexico. In total, fires continue to burn across 911,801 acres in the United States, according to the Web site.

So far this year, 79,444 fires have burned 6,838,748 acres, a 50-year record.

Fires in Montana and Idaho continue to pose the worst threat, although blazes no longer threaten any communities, Hammon said. In Oklahoma, wildfires were smaller and did threaten some communities.

Most of the nation's wildfires were more than 50 percent contained according to the NIFC Web site.

"We have a long way to go before this fire season is over," Hammon said, explaining that the diminished threat to communities in Idaho and Montana was allowing firefighter coordinators to "step back and assess the situation."

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National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC)

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