Oregon Public Broadcasting

Cooler temperatures and lighter winds are helping fire crews battle several blazes across the Northwest.

Some of those started Thursday and were pushed along by brisk winds. One fire has blackened 1,000 acres near the northeastern Washington town of Arden.

Bob Redling is with the Washington Department of Natural Resources.

Bob Redling: "It's burning in timber and a mix of grass and brush. And also, it was threatening several hundred residences, but most immediately, within a half mile, where about 65 houses that were under mandatory evacuation."

That evacuation notice has since been lifted. The largest fire in Washington is burning in wheat country, near the town of Dayton. It's only partially contained.

It's tiny compared to the largest fire in the west. It has scorched about 300,000 acres of sagebrush in southern Idaho.

Several fires are also burning in central Idaho, including one that's threatening homes near the Tamarack ski resort.