Wildfires force closure of Mount Rushmore for a second day

Wildfires shut down South Dakota's Mount Rushmore National Memorial on Tuesday for a second day and led to the evacuation of about 500 homes.

The wind-driven blazes, fuelled by dry grass and timber, started Monday morning just west of Rapid City, destroying two homes and several outbuildings, and scorching more than 2,100 acres, according to Scott Jacobson, a spokesperson with the US Forest Service.

The cause of the fire in the Black Hills area is unknown, but officials said that there were no lightning strikes, which are sometimes the catalyst for wildfires.

The fires appeared to be burning away from the massive sculptures of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore in the 1,278-acre park, officials said Tuesday.

No injuries were reported, said Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom in a news conference. About 250 firefighters were fighting the blaze.

Jacobson said that the fires were mostly contained Tuesday afternoon, but that “it's a tough fight with the winds and the uphill terrain. We're working hard to keep it under control.”

The National Weather Service reported winds of more 40mph (64 kmph) across the state, with gusts up to 70mph extended through much of Tuesday.

“The winds will let up tonight and give them a little break, but it'll pick up again Thursday,” said Bob Oravec, a forecaster with the NWS Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

“The dry weather will continue to be a problem,” he said, adding that there was no rain in the seven-day forecast.