The U.S. Pacific Northwest’s wildfires continued their swath ofdestruction as the week wound to a close, with blazes so hot thattwo major power lines that deliver electricity to the Northwestmelted. Electricity service was back on Friday afternoon, saidofficials, after an electronic system designed to detect problemslike excessive heat switched service to back-up lines.

The Bonneville Power Administration, which owns the lines,reported no electricity shortages from the interruption on thelines. The two 500 KV power lines carry the power from the Colstripcoal-fired plant in southeastern Montana to demand centers in thewest. Officials said the blazes had been so intense they had meltedthe aluminum on the lines. BPA said the two lines outside of Helenawent down late Wednesday and would be down “for the foreseeablefuture.”

Though the power had been redirected, it was a moot point astowns were evacuated along the firestorms’ route. Power outagescombined with the heavy smoke left some Montana towns so dark thatdaytime drivers were using headlights. BPA probably was consideringitself luckier than some as the nation’s worst fire season in 50years has burned more than 4.3 million acres, including 300,000 inMontana alone.

Officials said that the wildfires had closed a territory inMontana to public use for an area larger than the size of the stateof Vermont to prevent more blazes from starting. All in all, firecontrol officials said they had 65 large fires in 11 western statesas of late Friday, with little weather relief in sight. Teams offirefighters from Australia and New Zealand were expected to jointhe U.S. workers over the weekend.

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