Fires bear down on Oregon towns

Firefighters are struggling to contain the flames

Spreading forest fires are threatening to engulf thousands of homes in the south-west of the American state of Oregon.

We are looking at the fire at this time as uncontrollable

Greg Gilpin, Oregon forestry official.

Helicopters, bulldozers and top-level firefighting teams have been called in to quell the blazes in Siskiyou National Forest.

The authorities have told 17,000 residents in Cave Junction and other nearby towns to prepare for evacuation.

The fires are the latest to devastate parts of the western US and Canada in recent months.

Out of control

More than 1,400 firefighters are battling the blazes, which have already burnt almost 170,000 acres (68,000 hectares) in Siskiyou forest.

Crews have been using bulldozers to dig firebreaks and try to prevent the fires from merging and spreading.

But on Tuesday, the two main fires were only three miles (five kilometres) apart and the authorities urged residents in nearby communities to be ready to evacuate within 30 minutes.

An estimated 400 people have already left.

Firefighters have also been cutting trees and brush around threatened homes.

"We are looking at the fire at this time as uncontrollable," said Greg Gilpin, of the state Department of Forestry.

Threatened sites

Despite warnings that the line may not hold, Cave Junction resident Shelley Heon said she was not leaving her home until she could see the flames.

Many residents are already leaving

"I have five acres of property that needs to be tended to," she said. "It's a hard one, but there's no need to leave now."

Elsewhere in the US, firefighters are trying to contain a 2,600-acre (1040 hectare) fire in Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado state.

Crews were accompanied by archaeologists to prevent damage to 25,000 sites left by the ancient Pueblo Indian civilisation.

Its cliff dwellings date to the 1200s and pit houses date to the 500s.

Wildfires around the US have burned more than 4 million acres (1.6 million hectares) so far this year, double the average, according to the National Interagency Fire Centre. .