Wind, heat whipping up wildfires across the dry West

 United States

In this photo provided by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, a firefighter knocks down flames as they approach a ranch near the Las Flores Canyon area west of Goleta, Calif., in the early morning hours of Thursday, June 16, 2016. The wildfire burning in rugged coastal canyons west of Santa Barbara is growing as it feeds on vegetation that hasn’t burned in 70 years. Photo: Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department via AP

A fleet of aircraft dropped water and retardant to combat a wind-driven wildfire burning out of control Thursday in rugged coastal canyons west of Santa Barbara, where hundreds of campers...

Strong gusts and rising temperatures across the dry Western U.S. also worsened wildfires in other states. A blaze in central New Mexico exploded to nearly 19 square miles and forced residents of some small communities to flee after sending up a towering plume of smoke that blanketed the state’s largest city in a thick haze