One dead as western US heat wave stunts firefighting efforts

The western US was in the midst of a record heat wave Friday, with one dead in California as massive fires forced hundreds to evacuate. "Large fire activity is spread across the country from Florida to Alaska," the National Interagency Fire Center announced, as temperatures spiked above 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) in some places.
"Currently 60 large fires have burned more than 823,000 acres in 13 states," the center added. Twenty fires burned in Alaska, with seven others in New Mexico, four in California, eight in Colorado and others in Nevada, Arizona, and elsewhere in the southern US.