A sudden wind shift draws smoke back over the top of Sheep Mountain as the Squirrel Creek fire spreads Tuesday, July 3, 2012 near Woods Landing, Wyo. (AP Photo/Laramie Boomerang, Andy Carpenean)
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - While crews are taking advantage of better weather conditions to make inroads against wildfires in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, there's a growing blaze in Redding, California.
An official there says the fire is threatening dozens of homes amid tinder-dry conditions. It's erupted into a 2-square mile fire less than a day after it was spotted.
There's brighter news in Colorado, where crews expect to have that state's most destructive wildfire fully contained on Friday.
Colorado Springs officials have lifted evacuation orders for 126 more homes near a 28-square-mile fire that's damaged or destroyed nearly 350 homes and killed two people.
A lull in hot weather and shifting winds is helping firefighters at separate blazes in Wyoming and Montana. Aircraft, including four large tankers, helped crews get a 16-square-mile fire in southeast Wyoming 51 percent contained.
Headway is also being made on five fires in southeastern Montana that officials are managing as one 480-square-mile wildfire so they can quickly develop resources.
In Utah, rain and cooler temperatures have helped crews hold lines on a blaze that has burned nearly 13 square miles near Cedar City.