Wildfire in Oregon forces 2,000 to evacuate as US West blazes

Bootleg Fire is largest of 71 major wildfires in an unusually busy start to the annual western US fire season.

Firefighters backed by helicopters scrambled on Friday to suppress a wind-driven inferno that is blazing across southern Oregon as dozens of fires erupting across the drought-stricken western United States strained resources. The Bootleg wildfire forced 2,000 people to evacuate and destroyed 21 homes and 54 other structures as it exploded across 91,860 hectares (227,000 acres) of dry timber and brush through a national forest preserve about 400km (250 miles) south of Portland, Oregon’s largest city. Bootleg, burning since July 6, has torched an area larger than New York City and is the largest wildfire burning in the US.