Raging wildfires in US force people to flee

More people have been being forced to flee their homes as wildfires in the western US continued to burn out of control. The fire has already damaged 70 homes and scorched more than nine thousand hectares of land along the cascade mountain range . Nearly one thousand firefighters continued on Sunday to battle the blaze from all sides. After having spread across one million acres in Idaho, Oregon and California, a wildfire reached the small Washington state community of Elmer City. Military helicopters were out in full force scooping up water to help douse a blaze near Cle Elum, in the central part of washington state.. Around 40 per cent of the wildfire has been contained, but the national weather service warned that lightning strikes expected on Saturday could spark new fires. Thus far in 2012, wildfires have consumed roughly six million acres across the country, above the 10-year average of 4.9 million acres, figures from the National Interagency Fire Center show.