Wildfires burn south of Seattle

Wildfires fanned by high winds burned hundreds of thousands of acres in rthwest, mostly destroying a small town in eastern Washington state and causing evacuations, power outs and highway closures in Oregon.

Wind, smoke and fire plagued Pierce County south of Seattle on Tuesday morning, closing highways, kcking out power and destroying six homes in city of Graham.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Tuesday more than 330,000 acres (133,546 hectares) burned in Washington in a 24-hour period - more than burns in most entire fire seasons.

“It’s an unprecedented and heart-breaking event,'' Inslee said at a news conference, blaming heat, high winds and low humidity for explosive growth of fires. ” list of fires is long.''

Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said thousands of people were impacted by fires, but re appeared to be deaths or injuries.

“As of this morning, we have 9 large fires,'' Franz tweeted. ”We had 58 new wildfire starts in last 24 hours.''

Franz said high winds grounded many firefighting airplanes and helicopters on Monday, making it impossible to kck down fires when y first ignited.

high winds and dry fuels in rthwest are similar to conditions in California, where thousands of firefighters are battling  dozens of fires around state.