Hundreds of firefighters have been battling to contain a massive wildfire in the searing California heat.
The Bootleg Fire, which broke out on Tuesday, has charred 224 square miles in and around the Fremont-Winema National Forest in nearby Oregon.
Conditions at the blaze were so severe that the 926 firefighters working the lines were forced in some cases to “disengage and move to predetermined safety zones”, managers said.
No fatalities have been reported so far.
The flames were burning along a high voltage power corridor connecting Oregon’s power grid with California’s.
Officials in both states feared electricity could be knocked out to thousands of homes and businesses.
It came as temperatures in Death Valley reached 128 F (53C) on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service’s reading at Furnace creek.
About 300 miles north-west of the desert, the largest wildfire of the year in California was raging along the border with Nevada.
The Beckwourth Complex Fire – a combination of two lightning-caused fires- has doubled in size.
Residents in hundreds of homes were already under mandatory evacuation orders.
The Klamath County Sheriffs Department said it would make arrests if necessary to keep people out of those areas.
People living in additional parts of southern Oregon were under “Go now” orders on Sunday while still more were told to “get set”.
It came as a small plane crashed on Saturday during a survey of a wildfire in rural Mohave County, Arizona killing both crew members.
The Beech C-90 aircraft was monitoring the lightning-caused Cedar Basin Fire, near the tiny community of Wikieup northwest of Phoenix, before it crashed.
Officials on Sunday have identified the victims.
Air Tactical Group Supervisor Jeff Piechura, 62, a retired Tucson-area fire chief who was working for the Coronado National Forest, and Matthew Miller, 48, a pilot with Falcon Executive Aviation contracted by the U.S. Forest Service, were onboard the plane.
