Firefighter Brentt Call walks through a burned-over area of the Bootleg Fire near Klamath Falls, Oregon, on Tuesday, July 27.
Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard/USA Today Network

In pictures: Wildfires raging in the West

Updated 8:12 PM ET, Thu July 29, 2021

Firefighter Brentt Call walks through a burned-over area of the Bootleg Fire near Klamath Falls, Oregon, on Tuesday, July 27.
Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard/USA Today Network

Dozens of large wildfires are raging across the western United States as the region experiences a historic and unrelenting drought.

The biggest right now is the Bootleg Fire, which has been burning in the Fremont-Winema National Forest along the Oregon and California border. As of Tuesday, July 27, it had burned more than 410,000 acres.

With wildfires burning across much of the West, the nation is at its highest level of fire preparedness, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. This is the earliest move to Preparedness Level 5 -- also known as PL 5 -- in the past decade, the agency said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, left, and Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak tour an area destroyed by the Tamarack Fire in Gardnerville, Nevada, on Wednesday, July 28.
Sam Metz/AP
Cal Fire Capts. Tristan Gale, left, and Derek Leong monitor a firing operation in California's Lassen National Forest on Monday, July 26. Crews had set a ground fire to stop the Dixie Fire from spreading.
Noah Berger/AP
Firefighters try to reach a fire site in Quincy, California, on Sunday, July 25.
Neal Waters/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Volunteers sort clothing at a donation shelter for those affected by the Bootleg Fire in Bly, Oregon.
Maranie Staab/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Scott Griffin surveys his property, which was destroyed by the Bootleg Fire in Sycan Estates, Oregon.
Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Reuters
Flames consume a home as the Dixie Fire tears through the Indian Falls community of Plumas County, California, on Saturday, July 24.
Noah Berger/AP
People stand behind the fire line as flames from the Steptoe Canyon Fire spread through dry grass in Colton, Washington, on July 22.
August Frank/Lewiston Tribune/AP
Plumes of smoke from the Dixie Fire rise above California's Plumas National Forest, near the Pacific Gas and Electric Rock Creek Power House, on July 21.
Peter DaSilva/UPI/Shutterstock
Firefighters walk near a wildfire in Topanga, California, on July 19.
Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP
A firefighter does mop-up work in the Fremont-Winema National Forest, which has been struggling with the Bootleg Fire in Oregon.
Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images
A car is charred by the Bootleg Fire along a mountain road near Bly, Oregon.
Nathan Howard/AP