Hawaii Wildfires Nearly Contained

Nearly 5,000 people ordered to flee their homes because of a huge brush fire on Hawaii's Big Island were allowed to return Wednesday, finding their property dusted with a layer of ash but otherwise undamaged.

In spite of authorities' reopening the area, Waikoloa Village appeared all but abandoned as National Guard helicopters joined local firefighters in trying to contain the massive blaze in its third day.

"This is like a ghost town today," said Kris Kosa-Correia, principal of Waikoloa Elementary School, where scores of evacuees found temporary refuge.

The principal checked on her residence Wednesday morning to find the fire had scorched undergrowth up to 20 feet from her door and left ash inside the condominium.

Fire crews continued trying to contain the blaze, which had charred more than 25,000 acres along the Kohala Coast on the west side of the island.

The evacuation order had affected 75 percent of the town's 6,500 residents, said Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency acting administrator Lanny Nakano. Officials turned a community center and elementary school into evacuation centers, a resort opened its ballroom to evacuees and another school offered dorm rooms.

The blaze started Monday as a small brush fire.

Elsewhere on the island, another fire jumped Akoni Pule Highway and had burned more than 2,000 acres, including a two-square-mile tract on one side of the road, and down toward the ocean on the other.

County officials used bulldozers, helicopters and ground crews to contain the flames. One house had been threatened, but firefighters were able to cut a fire break around it, Fire Chief Darryl Oliviera said.

On the mainland, officials in Washington state said residents of about 75 homes who had evacuated Monday when a wildfire closed in were allowed to return home Wednesday.

However, the returnees and residents of 70 other homes were under notice that they might have to evacuate again in the area near Lake Wenatchee in central Washington. The blaze had charred nearly 1,000 acres and was only 20 percent contained.

Large fires also were active Wednesday in Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Utah, the National Interagency Fire Center reported. So far this year, wildfires have charred 4.7 million acres, compared with 5.5 million at the same time last year, the center said.