A wildfire raging unchecked for a sixth day east of Washington state´s Cascade Mountains has destroyed about 100 homes, displaced hundreds of residents and left thousands without electricity, emergency officials said yesterday.
A cluster of lightning-sparked blazes that merged days ago into a conflagration dubbed the Carlton Complex has scorched at least 336 square miles (870 sq km) of dry timber and grasslands in north-central Washington since Monday, officials said.
No serious injuries have been reported, said Mike Worden, manager of the emergency dispatch and communications center for the Okanogan County Sheriff´s Office. But authorities were seeking the whereabouts of a “handful” of people – fewer than 10 – who have not been heard from by
family or friends in the hardest-hit area of the fire zone.
