Wednesday,  July 25, 2012 • Vol. 13--No. 011 • 17 of 27 •  Other Editions

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It's expected to be fully contained by Wednesday, said Marian Swinney, a fire spokeswoman.
• "It's still at 10,080 (acres), but we don't expect it to grow," Swinney said Tuesday morning. "We're doing really well."
• About 670 firefighters have been battling the blaze, Swinney said, and crews will be reassigned to other wildfires in the region once the Myrtle fire is under control.
• There are several fires burning in South Dakota, and authorities say recent drought conditions have helped fuel the blazes. One near Edgemont is similarly sized, having burned more than 11 square miles, and more than 7,500 acres of land

on the Rosebud Indian Reservation have been blackened since late last week.
• None of the more than 200 homes evacuated near the Myrtle fire was damaged, authorities said.
• "When we came back, we had our fingers crossed and didn't know what had happened. We expected to have a lot of the trees burn up, but it didn't get us," Tim White told KELO-TV. White lives on Beaver Creek Road, not far from where the fire started.
• He evacuated Thursday night and watched the action from Pringle.
• "We went into town and just hung around town with everybody else that got booted out of here. It was quite a show," White said.
• The fire burned right up to the edge of White's property. But thanks to the hard work of firefighters, he said, that's where it stopped.
• "They certainly have a great reputation around here," White said of the fire crews.

Sioux Falls weighs consolidating 3 schools

• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- The superintendent of South Dakota's largest school district is proposing to consolidate three central elementary schools because of declining enrollment and aging buildings.
• Superintendent Pam Homan wants to close Longfellow and Jefferson schools and raze Mark Twain. A new, larger school would be built where Mark Twain now stands.
• Homan says the new two-story school would cost $10 million. The Argus Leader reports that officials estimate the cost of renovating the decades-old existing schools would be more than $8 million.
• KELO reports that the district will continue weighing other options. If school

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