DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: In Idaho this morning, crews are battling an 18,000-acre wildfire around a nuclear waste storage facility. And that's west of Idaho Falls. Authorities say the blaze near the national engineering and environmental lab is contained, and they're testing for radioactive material. Near Montana's capital, firefighters have surrounded a 24,000-acre fire. Some of the 300 families evacuated earlier this week now get to go home. Flames snaking across 10 western states are putting a strain on firefighters. Reporter Dan Rascon (ph) of our affiliate KUTV takes us to the front lines in Utah.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FIREFIGHTER: Line them up. Just face in, watch your toes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FIREFIGHTER: This is really hot, steep terrain, real bad.</s>DAN RASCON, KUTV REPORTER (voice-over): The terrain is steep, the temperatures are hot, and the fire continues to make its way across the mountain top.</s>CHARLIE JOHNSON, FIRE INFORMATION OFFICER: Very difficult, dangerous terrain for firefighters. This is a type of fuel that doesn't burn real clean all the time. And when it doesn't, then there's a high potential for reburn.</s>RASCON: The fire started as small acre blaze. It now has consumed more than 300 acres. Firefighters' first line of defense was to protect the nearby mountain homes located less than a mile away.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm surprised how quickly it spread.</s>RASCON: Homeowners like Paul Conrad (ph) feel pretty safe, but hate to see their mountain up in flames. But what's missing in this fire is air support.</s>JOHNSON: There's so many fires in the western United States right now that the critical resources are scarce resources. And trying to get them, unless you've got homes that are burning or lives that are threatened, that's where the priorities go.</s>KAGAN: And that was reporter Dan Rascon from our affiliate KUTV.
Wildfires Taxing Firefighting Resources in Western U.S.