Wildfires Prompt Evacuations In Alaska, Road Closures In California

Several hundred residents in Alaska were told to leave their homes on Tuesday as swiftly growing wildfires on the drought-stricken U.S. West Coast closed highways and destroyed buildings, officials said. Blazes near the northeast Alaska communities of Nulato and Tanana along the Yukon River prompted authorities to call for evacuations of several hundred people, a forestry official said. Farther upstream, another blaze of more than 18,000 acres (7,300 hectares) threatened a major roadway linking Anchorage and Fairbanks.