Across the western United States, wildfire season is well underway, and dozens of fires are currently being fought. In Colorado, the High Park fire has destroyed more than 180 homes, the most in state history. The Whitewater-Baldy Complex fire, New Mexico's largest-ever wildfire, was recently declared 75 percent contained, after the lightning-sparked blaze began has burned for more than a month. Crews from California to Wyoming are approaching the fires with aerial water drops, ground equipment, brush clearing, and controlled burns. Gathered here are recent photos of some of these incidents, early glimpses of an already-busy 2012 wildfire season.
Western Wildfires
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The Little Bear Fire burns in the Lincoln National Forest near Ruidoso, New Mexico, on June 13, 2012. Some of the 2,500 people forced to evacuate their central New Mexico houses by wildfires raging near the resort village of Ruidoso began returning home this week with the help of National Guard troops, officials said. #
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Angeles National Forest firefighters make their way into a brush fire spread out over an area of more than 500 acres (2 square km) at Los Padres National Forest in California, on June 16, 2012. The fire started on Saturday afternoon in the hills of the forest between the cities of Frazier Park and Ojai. #
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This image from the Expedition 31 crew aboard the International Space Station shows the smoke and some flames associated with wildfires in the Southwest, with the lights of the El Paso, Texas at center left. In the foreground, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft is docked to the station. #
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Leftover piles of wood from salvage logging from the 2006 Bear Fire are burned, in an effort to slow the current Whitewater-Baldy Complex fire, in New Mexico, on June 1, 2012. #
Brandon Oberhardt/USFS Gila National Forest -
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A brush fire spread out over an area of more than 500 acres burns out of control at Los Padres National Forest in California, on June 16, 2012. The fire started in the hills of the forest between the cities of Frazier Park and Ojai. #
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Tracy Greenwood embraces her daughter Mariah Greenwood, left, as they watch the High Park wildfire burn around their home west of Fort Collins, Colorado, on June 11, 2012. #
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A firefighting helicopter fills its tank while fighting the Sunrise Fire in Montrose County, Colorado, on on May 30, 2012. Original here. #
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Firefighters watch as flames leap hundreds of feet in the air as the High Park wildfire fire explodes on the south side of Poudre Canyon, west of Fort Collins, Colorado, on June 14, 2012. #
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Customers walk into Vern's convenience store as the window thanks firefighters for their efforts on the High Park Fire near Laporte, on June 12, 2012. More than 43,000 acres have been burnt with more than 500 firefighters tackling the fire. Officials were reporting five percent containment on the fire, which started days earlier from a lightning strike. #
Reuters/Marc Piscotty -
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A Sikorsky S-64 Aircrane firefighting helicopter drops water on a hotspot burning close to homes near Horsetooth Reservoir near Laporte, Colorado, on June 11, 2012. The High Park Fire in Larimer County has burned almost 37,000 acres and damaged or destroyed more than 100 structures. #
Marc Piscotty/Getty Images -
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A firefighter pauses with his chainsaw as he works along a perimeter in an effort to contain the nation's largest wildfire in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico, on May 31, 2012. #
AP Photo/USFS, Brandon R. Oberhardt -
Smoke and flames encroach upon homes on the eastern front of the High Park fire near Laporte, Colorado, on June 10, 2012. The wind-driven wildfire burning in the rugged Colorado canyon spread out of control, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate and one person in the fire zone was reported missing, officials said on Sunday. #
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