BLY, Ore. -- Out-of-state crews are heading to Montana to battle a blaze that injured five firefighters as the West struggles with a series of fires that have ravaged rural lands and destroyed homes.
Authorities say progress is being made on the nation’s largest blaze, the Bootleg Fire in Oregon, but additional mandatory evacuations were ordered Friday evening and less than half of it has been contained.
Meanwhile, crews from California and Utah were headed to Montana, where five firefighters were injured Thursday as they worked the Devil's Creek blaze near the town of Jordan.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency for four northern counties because of wildfires causing “conditions of extreme peril."
Smoke from wildfires seen in Virginia
The smoke from the fires out West have been impacting other parts of North America.
Meteorologist Mike Stone said upper air winds are pulling smoke from the wildfires and spreading it across the country.
"Where you see some of this gray, we had some smoky skies in some previous days," Stone said pointing to a map. "There's going to be some smoke in the air today."
The smoke has also been creating some unusual sunsets.
"The smoke in the air kind of changes the way our eyes see the light," Stone explained.
So we instead an orange sunset, our eyes will view the sunset as a vibrant red.
"It was doing some of that stuff to the moonrise as well," he noted.
Stone said that as we head into the next week, we may see another batch of smoke move in toward mid and late week.
