• BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- The tiny southwestern North Dakota town of Bucyrus has been all but destroyed by a wind-fueled wildfire that displaced its 27 residents, prompting an outpouring of assistance from surrounding communities, officials said Thursday.
• No one was injured in the fire that swept through late Wednesday, but the rural town is "pretty much completely lost," Adams County State's Attorney Aaron Roseland said.
• The county commission chairman said the fire destroyed four homes and two abandoned farms in the town about 60 miles south of Dickinson. Chuck Christman said seven structures, a church and a grain elevator were spared from the blaze that was pushed by near 70 mph winds. The town's only business, a picture-framing shop, was destroyed, while trees and buildings including homes still smoldered Thursday, he said.
• Christman said the blaze scorched an area six miles long and half a mile wide and also downed about 50 power poles and set railroad ties on a nearby train track ablaze
• "A lifetime of memories (is) gone for at least four families," Christman said early Thursday. "People are rummaging through their losses. Everyone is pretty heavily grieved."
• Edward and Angela McClusky's 80-year-old home was one of the structures destroyed by the fire. The couple, who live in a Washington, D.C. suburb, had planned to move back to the town in a few years to retire.
• "This is very upsetting," Edward McClusky, 52, said of the loss of the picturesque white, two-story home where he grew up. "It's very sad that this has happened to all the people."
• "We always wanted to go home and retire there," said McClusky, an electrical

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