India, July 9 -- Firefighters are working hard to contain nearly three dozen large, early-season wildland fires that raced through forests in several parts of the western U.S. Utah was among the most active states, with fires having charred 558 square miles of area and four major fires that were not fully contained still burning.
Three wildland firefighters reportedly died while trying to contain the Knowles Fire along Utah's border with Colorado.
After a winter of below-average snow-pack and an unusually warm and dry start to summer, the National Inter-agency Fire Center had warned that the Great Basin and parts of the Rockies faced an elevated risk of wildfires in July.
The Cottonwood fire ranked as one of Utah's and the country's larg...