A plane drops retardant to create a fire break at the Sunlight Waters housing development as the Taylor Bridge wildfire advances on the community near Cle Elum, Wash. The extreme fire conditions across the West came to bear in a rural part of Washington state near CleElum when three separate blazes were sparked in just 90 minutes. Firefighters snuffed two quickly, but the third exploded across more than 40 square miles of grassland, timber and sagebrush on the east slope of the Cascades. It left authorities scrambling to evacuate hundreds of residents.
AP Photo