Hot, dry and windy conditions have created a perfect storm for the spread of large wildfires in several western states, including a massive blaze in California that has destroyed 135-square miles of forest. In addition, Washington, Wyoming, Montana and Oregon each had their hands full with large active wildfires.

Often, trends are a good thing. However, the current trend — and increase in fatal motor vehicle accidents — could result in the United States experiencing its deadliest driving year since 2007. And with Labor Day coming up, traditionally a deadly weekend on U.S. roads, the National Safety Council is warning drivers to be aware on the roads.

Authorities have lifted all evacuation orders affecting thousands of people, less than a week after a wildfire raged through mountainous terrain in Southern California and consumed hundreds of homes and other buildings.

Firefighters are battling to keep the relentless Blue Cut wildfire in Southern California from destroying more homes. More than 82,000 people are under evacuation orders, and several homes have already been gutted, but officials cannot confirm how many.

What started as a small brush fire Tuesday morning above Devore turned into a state of emergency dubbed the Blue Cut Fire, as the blaze scorched at least 18,000 acres and forced 82,000 people to evacuate their homes in San Bernardino County.

HEI Hotels & Resorts provided a list of hotels—20 hotels in 10 states and the District of Columbia—that suffered a “security incident,” in which payment card data of customers may have been affected. “HEI was recently alerted to a potential security incident by its card processor,” HEI said in a statement released Friday.

A man was arrested on Monday on suspicion of arson, officials said, over a wildfire in Northern California that has destroyed more than 175 homes and businesses and forced hundreds of residents to flee. The conflagration is one of two dozen major wildfires across the drought-parched U.S. West that have all together charred nearly 300,000 acres (120,000 hectares).

Flames racing through dry brush Sunday destroyed at least 10 homes and forced 4,000 people to flee and firefighters to carry animals out of a northern California lake community that was evacuated in a devastating wildfire last year.

Los Angeles firefighters Wednesday evening knocked down fires that damaged three houses in the Pico-Union neighborhood and displaced 41 residents, officials said.

We’re not saying this is the way things should be, but it’s the way things are: If you’re going to use Airbnb or some other service to rent out your house like a hotel, you need to know there’s a chance that the people you let stay in your home while you’re away might also see it as nothing more than a hotel room they can mess up and leave behind.

Four thieves were sought by police after being caught on camera using a white van with an apparent battering ram attached to it pull off a smash-and-grab burglary early Tuesday at a camera store in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf.

A wildfire burning in Southern California’s rugged San Bernardino Mountains has grown to more than 12 square miles, but it hasn’t reached any of the homes it has been threatening.

A federal jury found California’s largest utility guilty on Tuesday of misleading investigators about how it was identifying high-risk pipelines after a deadly pipeline explosion in the San Francisco Bay Area.

A wildfire in California’s San Bernardino County has led officials to initiate mandatory evacuations and smoke advisories.
Evacuations were ordered for the Summit Valley area east of Cedar Springs Dam.

Federal officials say 27 large wildfires are burning in the West. Hot, dry temperatures often combined with winds have made firefighting conditions difficult, destroying homes and forcing evacuations.