Weekend wildfires lead to 1 death, large areas burned in western North Dakota

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Wildfires driven by ferocious winds and fueled by dry conditions raged through parts of western North Dakota over the weekend, leading to one death and forcing more than 100 people to evacuate their homes. Officials don't expect the region's tinder-dry conditions to improve soon.

Six significant wildfires were reported, and four of them were nearly or completely contained, state officials said Monday. Downed power lines were believed to have ignited at least some of the fires.

The fires burned in scattered areas over a vast swath of North Dakota’s oil fields, including agricultural land, grassland and rugged Badlands terrain where small, rural towns dot the map. Wind gusts reported Saturday morning in areas of western and central North Dakota ranged from 57 mph (92 kph) to 75 mph (121 kph), according to the National Weather Service. Most of western North Dakota is in some level of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The 44-square-mile (114-square-kilometer) Elkhorn Fire near Grassy Butte was 20% contained Monday, and the 18-square-mile (47-square-kilometer) Bear Dean Fire near Mandaree was zero percent contained, according to the state Department of Emergency Services.

“We do have to lean forward on this. We know that we're probably here until it snows. That's the honest-to-God-truth that no one wants to hear,” North Dakota Forest Service Fire Manager Ryan Melin said during a press conference in Watford City.

Johannes Nicolaas Van Eeden, 26, of South Africa, died during a large fire near Ray in northwest North Dakota, the Williams County Sheriff's Office said Sunday. Detective Dan Ward declined to say how he died, citing an active investigation.

Another person was critically injured, the sheriff's office said.

The warm and dry weather pattern is expected to continue in western North Dakota at least through Thursday, with fairly light winds through Wednesday, said National Weather Service meteorologist Michael Hollan. Thursday brings the potential for wind gusts up to to 30 mph (48 kph), he said.

At least two homes and numerous outbuildings were lost in the Bear Dean Fire, the department said. Damage in other fires included downed power lines, vehicles and outbuildings. There are no current evacuation orders, according to a department spokesperson.

Livestock losses were not immediately clear. State Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said farmers and ranchers were still trying to assess the situation. North Dakota Stockmen's Association Executive Vice President Julie Ellingson said it could be weeks or months before a full picture emerges of the impact, given the wide area affected.

Gov. Doug Burgum toured wildfire areas and met with local officials Monday and said that Saturday might go down as one of the worst fire days in North Dakota's history in terms of the amount of land charred.

The North Dakota Forest Service logged 33 reported fires over the weekend encompassing 77 square miles (199 square kilometers). That figure does not include the large Ray-, Tioga- and Alamo-area fires that merged into one. Its size is still being determined.

“Unfortunately, we could be at this for a while because of the conditions we have,” the governor said.

Eighty to 100 people were affected by the evacuation order in the Arnegard area, where a 700-acre (283-hectare) fire began early Saturday, ignited by a downed power line, said Arnegard Fire Protection District Chief Rick Schreiber. Another 35 people slept on cots at a makeshift shelter Saturday night, McKenzie County Emergency Manager Karolin Jappe said.

Responders to the Arnegard-area fire dealt with wind gusts up to 73 mph (117 kph), and initial units had to back out to avoid being overrun by flames, said Schreiber, who requested every available unit in the county with 50 to 60 homes and businesses in the line of the fire.

He called the blaze “the fastest, most aggressive grass fire that I have ever been on, period, ever” in his 27 years of firefighting.

Firefighters battled 50-foot (15-meter) flames over tree rows, he said. He credited the response from multiple fire departments, the county and local residents to help fight the blaze.

The fire left a barren wasteland and nothing on the ground, Schreiber said. Jappe compared driving conditions to a blizzard but with ash, smoke and dust.

Many oil companies have shut off their flaring of natural gas during the dry period, Jappe said. Mountrail-Williams Electric Cooperative estimated 370 poles were damaged with 315 customers without power Monday afternoon.

Local, state, tribal and federal responders and agencies battled the fires, as well as National Guard firefighters and help from Montana and New Mexico, according to Burgum's office.

In this photo provided by the Arnegard Fire Protection District, a wildfire burn near Arnegard, N.D., Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (Arnegard Fire Protection District via AP)

In this photo provided by the Arnegard Fire Protection District, a wildfire burn near Arnegard, N.D., Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (Arnegard Fire Protection District via AP)

In this photo provided by the U.S. Army National Guard, North Dakota National Guard soldiers and airmen work with the Department of Emergency Services to build a handline and conduct a controlled burn to prevent the further spread of a wildfire in Mandaree, N.D., Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (Staff Sgt. Samuel J. Kroll/U.S. Army National Guard via AP)

In this photo provided by the U.S. Army National Guard, North Dakota National Guard soldiers and airmen work with the Department of Emergency Services to build a handline and conduct a controlled burn to prevent the further spread of a wildfire in Mandaree, N.D., Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (Staff Sgt. Samuel J. Kroll/U.S. Army National Guard via AP)

In this photo provided by the U.S. Army National Guard, North Dakota National Guard soldiers and airmen work with the Department of Emergency Services to build a handline and conduct a controlled burn to prevent the further spread of a wildfire in Mandaree, N.D., Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (Staff Sgt. Samuel J. Kroll/U.S. Army National Guard via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A court order that says hospitals cannot federally be required to provide pregnancy terminations when they violate a Texas abortion ban will stay for now, the Supreme Court said Monday.

The decision is another setback for opponents of Texas’ abortion ban, which for two years has withstood multiple legal challenges, including from women who had serious pregnancy complications and have been turned away by doctors.

It left Texas as the only state where the Biden administration is unable to enforce its interpretation of a federal law in an effort to ensure women still have access to emergency abortions when their health or life is at risk.

The justices did not detail their reasoning for keeping in place a lower court order, and there were no publicly noted dissents. Texas had asked the justices to leave the order in place while the Biden administration had asked the justices to throw it out.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called the decision “a major victory.”

The Biden administration argues that a federal law, called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, requires emergency rooms to provide abortions if a pregnant patient’s health or life is at serious risk, even in states where the procedure is banned. The law only applies to emergency rooms that receive Medicare funding, which most hospitals do.

The Supreme Court decision comes weeks before a presidential election in which Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has put abortion at the center of her campaign, attacking Republican challenger Donald Trump for appointing judges to the high court who overturned nationwide abortion rights in 2022.

“I will never stop fighting for a woman’s right to emergency medical care — and to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade so that women in every state have access to the care they need,” Harris said on social media Monday evening.

Texas' abortion ban has been a centerpiece of Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred ’s challenge against Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cuz for his seat.

At a campaign event over the weekend in Fort Worth, Texas, hundreds of Allred’s supporters broke out in raucous applause when he vowed to protect a woman’s right to an abortion. “When I’m in the Senate, we’re going to restore Roe v. Wade," Allred said.

At a separate event the same day, in a nearby suburb, Cruz outlined a litany of criticisms against Allred, but didn’t bring up the abortion law.

Complaints of pregnant women in medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms in Texas and elsewhere have spiked as hospitals grapple with whether standard care could violate strict state laws against abortion. Several Texas women have lodged complaints against hospitals for not terminating their failing and dangerous pregnancies because of the state's ban. In some cases, women lost reproductive organs.

In asking the Supreme Court to toss out the lower court decision, the administration pointed to a similar case from Idaho earlier this year in which the justices narrowly allowed emergency abortions to resume while a lawsuit continues. At the time the Idaho case began, the state had an exception for the life, but not the health, of a woman.

Texas said its case is different, however, because the law provides some exceptions if a pregnant patient's health is at risk.

Texas pointed to a state Supreme Court ruling that said doctors do not have to wait until a woman’s life is in immediate danger to provide an abortion legally. Doctors, though, have said the Texas law is dangerously vague, and a medical board has refused to list all the conditions that qualify for an exception.

Marc Hearron, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, said doctors in Texas got no clarity from the Supreme Court on Monday.

“The health care crisis is ongoing,” Hearron said. “Patients are going to continue to suffer.”

Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California at Davis who has written extensively about abortion, said there remains much uncertainty for doctors in Texas, who could risk life in prison for performing abortions.

“I think we’re going to continue to see physicians turning away patients, even patients who could qualify under the state’s exceptions, because the consequences of guessing wrong are so severe and the laws are not that clear,” Ziegler said.

The Texas case started after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, leading to abortion restrictions in many Republican-controlled states. The Biden administration issued guidance saying hospitals still needed to provide abortions in emergency situations under a health care law that requires most hospitals to treat any patients in medical distress.

Texas sued over that guidance, arguing that hospitals cannot be required to provide abortions that would violate its ban. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the state, ruling in January that the administration had overstepped its authority.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a post on X, “Reproductive rights are under assault in this country and women’s health and lives remain in danger from the chaos and confusion caused by overturning Roe.”

Stengle contributed to this report from Dallas. AP reporters Amanda Seitz in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City and Aamer Madhani in Washington also contributed to this report.

Supreme Court lets stand a decision barring emergency abortions that violate Texas ban

Supreme Court lets stand a decision barring emergency abortions that violate Texas ban

FILE - The Supreme Court building is seen, June 28, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)