ENTIAT, Washington (AP) -- Higher humidity and lighter winds allowed thousands of firefighters to gain headway Thursday on a 106,000-acre (42,900-hectare) wildfire that has plagued Washington for two weeks.


But lightning strikes overnight sparked dozens of new fires in Washington and six other Western states. Most were small and did not pose an immediate threat to towns.


In all, more than 19,000 firefighters were battling 26 major fires Thursday that had scorched more than 233,000 acres in Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Utah, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.


On the California-Nevada line, a wildfire ignited Thursday in dry timber in the Tahoe National Forest and burned across 1,200 acres in five hours. At least three homes were burned along with three outbuildings, said spokeswoman Carol Burcell.


The worst of the fires, the Tyee Creek blaze near Entiat in central Washington, was about half contained Thursday, 12 days after lightning strikes touched off blazes that have swept across more than 175,000.