ere reported. The fire was one of a group of fires that have blackened about 117,000 acres some 50 miles northeast of Challis, Idaho.Authorities ordered the evacuation of another guest ranch 11 miles away and recommended evacuation of a third.Elsewhere, a fire burning out of control in South Dakota's Black Hills National Forest might have been set, a U.S. Forest Service official said Sunday night at a town meeting.``It probably is human-caused, possibly arson,'' said Mike Lloyd, of the U.S. Forest Service. The fire has burned an estimated 62,000 acres.George Broyles, with the Spearfish District of the Black Hills National Forest, said most of the sparsely populated area that has burned is U.S. Forest Service land.On a map, the burned area like a left-handed oven mitt. Mount Rushmore National Memorial is at least 13 miles east of the fire's eastern perimeter and was not believed to be in danger.Three outbuildings and two homes were damaged Saturday night; voluntary evacuations covered 600 square miles, officials reported.Authorities expressed relief Sunday at the scene of the nation's largest cluster of fires in southwestern Montana's Bitterroot Valley, where a patchwork of blazes has blackened more than 260,000 acres.``We did get some growth on the fires, but nothing incredibly huge,'' information officer Connie Myers said. A wind shift turned flames from that blaze back into already-burned areas.East of Missoula, a fire in the Lolo National Forest tripled in size, to 4,500 acres, pushed east by 25 to 30 mph wind toward about 40 summer homes, said Marcia Hogan, a fire information officer for the Southwest Montana Coordination Center. Helicopters dropped water on the fire until nightfall and engine crews were protecting the homes.In California, a 100-acre wildfire in the American River Canyon in Placer County crept toward homes in an upscale subdivision. By nightfall, the threat had eased and a voluntary evacuation order was lifted for d...
