Rescued kidnapping victim Hannah Anderson (C), 16, is escorted into a local restaurant that was holding a raffle and donating profits to help cover the Anderson family funeral costs in Lakeside, California, August 15, 2013. REUTERS/Mike Blake

By Dan Whitcomb and Marty Graham

(Reuters) - Hannah Anderson, a 16-year-old California girl kidnapped by a man and taken to Idaho after he killed her mother and younger brother, said in a television interview that she considers herself a survivor who was raised to be strong.

The interview, which aired on Wednesday, comes just over a week after Anderson was rescued in the Idaho wilderness by FBI agents who shot and killed her captor, 40-year-old James Lee DiMaggio.

Anderson's statements to NBC, in her first mainstream media interview since the ordeal, were aired on the network's "Nightly News" as a snippet of a full interview to be shown Thursday morning on the "Today" program.

"In the beginning, I was a victim but now, knowing everyone out there is helping me, I consider myself a survivor instead," Anderson told NBC News.

"My mom raised me to be strong," she said.

Anderson is believed to have taken to the social media website ask.fm just days after her rescue to field dozens of questions from strangers about her kidnapping, but she has otherwise remained silent about what she endured.

DNA TESTS CONSIDERED

In other developments on Wednesday, a spokesman for DiMaggio's family said they want more answers from police and have considered seeking DNA tests to determine if DiMaggio was the biological father of Hannah Anderson and her slain 8-year-old brother, Ethan.

Family members of DiMaggio were trying to understand what could have prompted the computer technician to kill 44-year-old Christina Anderson and her son, Ethan, and set fire to his rural San Diego area home, which was discovered burning on August 4, Andrew Spanswick told Reuters in an interview.

Spanswick was a friend of both DiMaggio and his sister, Lora Robinson, and has acted as a spokesman for the DiMaggio family.

"Lora is in a position of extreme grief and distress and she's looking for any sort explanation of how her brother could have changed from the person she knew into what he is accused of," Spanswick said of DiMaggio's sister.

The remains of Christina Anderson were found under a tarp in DiMaggio's log-cabin-style home in Boulevard, about 25 miles east of San Diego, and an autopsy found she died from blunt force trauma to the head.

The badly burned body of Ethan Anderson was found in a different part of the wreckage than his mother.

DiMaggio was discovered with Hannah Anderson on August 10 at a mountain lake in the remote Idaho wilderness and was shot to death by an FBI agent during an operation to rescue the girl.

Police have described DiMaggio as a longtime friend of Christina Anderson who was treated like an uncle to her children Hannah and Ethan.

Spanswick said members of DiMaggio's family had not made a formal request for DNA from Hannah or Ethan Anderson, but have raised the issue as they seek a fuller understanding of the events leading up to the murders and kidnapping.

A San Diego County Sheriff's spokesman, Jan Caldwell, said on Wednesday that no requests had been made to the department for DNA from Ethan Anderson. Representatives of the Anderson family could not be reached for comment.

Caldwell said that sheriff's investigators had confirmed that DiMaggio and Hannah Anderson were photographed in his car at 12:10 a.m. on August 4, some 20 hours before the house went up in flames.

Christina and Ethan Anderson were last seen alive on August 3 at their home in the San Diego community of Lakeside, and Hannah Anderson was picked up from a high school cheerleading event at Sweetwater High School in nearby National City that afternoon.

Authorities have not publicly discussed any possible motives for DiMaggio's actions. A family friend has said the suspect developed an apparent infatuation with the high school girl that made Hannah feel uncomfortable.

(Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles and Chris Francescani in New York; Editing by Maureen Bavdek, Cynthia Johnston and Ken Wills)

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — An out-of-control forest fire threatening about 2,500 structures near Yosemite National Park was one of more than 50 active, large wildfires dotting the western U.S. on Wednesday.

The remote blaze in Stanislaus National Forest west of Yosemite grew to more than 25 square miles and was only 5 percent contained, threatening homes, hotels and camp buildings.

The fire has led to the voluntary evacuation of the private gated summer community of Pine Mountain Lake, which has a population of 2,800, as well as several organized camps, at least two campgrounds and dozens of other private homes. Two residences and seven outbuildings have been destroyed.

The fire also caused the closure of a 4-mile stretch of State Route 120, one of the gateways into Yosemite on the west side. Park officials said the park remains open to visitors and can be accessed via state Routes 140 and 4.

"This is typically a very busy time for us until Labor Day, so it's definitely affecting business not having the traffic come through to Yosemite," said Britney Sorsdahl, a manager at the Iron Door Saloon and Grill in Groveland, a community of about 600 about five miles from the fire.

The board of supervisors in Tuolumne County held an emergency meeting Wednesday afternoon and voted for a resolution to ask Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency and free special funds and resources for the firefight.

The resolution said the fire was "directly threatening various communities and businesses" and "beyond our capabilities," according to the Modesto Bee.

The fire was among the nation's top firefighting priorities, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

Fifty-one major uncontained wildfires are burning throughout the West, according to the center, including in California, Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. More than 19,000 firefighters were fighting the fires.

But the U.S. Forest Service, the nation's top wildfire-fighting agency, said Wednesday that it is running out of money to fight wildfires and is diverting $600 million from timber, recreation and other areas to fill the gap. The agency said it had spent $967 million so far this year and was down to $50 million — typically enough to pay for just a few days of fighting fires when the nation is at its top wildfire preparedness level, which went into effect Tuesday.

There have been more than 32,000 fires this year that have burned more than 5,300 square miles.

On Wednesday, the National Interagency Fire Center listed two fires in Montana as the nation's number one priority. They include a wildfire burning west of Missoula that has surpassed 13 square miles, destroyed five homes, closed U.S. Highway 12 and led to multiple evacuations. The Lolo Fire Complex, which was zero percent contained, also destroyed an unknown number of outbuildings and vehicles.

At least 19 other notable fires were burning across the state, leading Montana Gov. Steve Bullock to declare a state of emergency, which allows the use of National Guard resources ranging from personnel to helicopters.

In Oregon, a fire in the Columbia Gorge about 10 miles southwest of The Dalles grew to 13 square miles, forcing evacuations and burning a third home. The fire was 15 percent contained. Strong winds continued to fan the blaze, pushing it into the Mount Hood National Forest.

Firefighters in southwestern Oregon braced for a return of lightning storms that started a series of fires last month that continue to burn in rugged timberlands.

In Idaho, progress was reported in the fight against the nearly 169-square-mile Beaver Creek fire, which forced the evacuation of 1,250 homes in the resort area of Ketchum and Sun Valley. That fire was 47 percent contained, authorities said.

In Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, officials reopened a 7-mile section of road closed briefly by a wildfire. As of Wednesday, the Alum Fire had burned about 12 square miles and was spreading slowly, leading park officials to make preliminary evacuation plans for a community on the shore of Yellowstone Lake.

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AP writers Jeff Barnard in Grants Pass, Ore., Matt Volz in Helena, Mont., and Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyo. contributed to this report.

Wildfires spread throughout Western U.S.

More than 50 large fires, including one near Yosemite National Park, threaten homes and structures.
Top firefighting priority

DEER TRAIL, Colo. (AP) — This tiny plains town an hour east of Denver doesn't have much to offer visitors — a gas station, a bar and a small-time rodeo one weekend a year.

But Deer Trail, population 500, is considering a proposal to make itself a national attraction for gun enthusiasts and people skeptical of government surveillance. Citizens on Oct. 8 will vote on whether to issue permits to hunt drones.

Yes, those drones. Shoot 'em down for $25. With a $100 bounty reward for shooters who bring in debris from an unmanned aircraft "known to be owned or operated by the United States federal government."

The initiative's architect insists it's a symbolic stand against government surveillance.

"These are not big drones you see on TV that look like airplanes. These are little 55-pound things that can come right down into your land," said Phillip Steel, a traveling structural inspector.

Steel got the idea after seeing news reports about the National Security Agency's domestic spying efforts. "Do we really want to become a surveillance society? That's what I find really repugnant," Steel said.

The measure drew a stern warning from Washington, which is considering several regions — most of them in Colorado and other Western states — where civilians can use drones on an experimental basis.

"Shooting at an unmanned aircraft could result in criminal or civil liability, just as would firing at a manned airplane," the Federal Aviation Administration warned.

The proposal has sharply divided this tiny burg that lays claim to the world's oldest rodeo and not much else. (Some historians credit Deer Trail's 1869 rodeo as the first, though Deer Trail is just one of many claimants to the title.)

Taking a break from dishing up beef plates at the rodeo recently, Libby Mickaliger said it could be a great low-cost fundraiser for this dusty outpost. "If it raises money for the town, why not? It's not like people are going to go and shoot one down," she said.

Harry Venter, editor of the weekly Tri-County Tribune, worries the proposal sends the message that Deer Trail disapproves of the military, not domestic surveillance. "It's embarrassing to most of us, to be honest with you," Venter said.

Drone hunting has become the dominant topic at the Brown Derby, Deer Trail's only bar.

"I try to play pretty impartial with it. 'Cause if you own the bar, and you go out and speak for it or against it, you're going to make people mad," said owner Carl Miron. "But I don't like the fact that the government can sit and spy on you, I'll tell you that."

Miron pointed to dilapidated buildings surrounding the Brown Derby, their window frames pockmarked with broken glass. Deer Trail could use some extra cash, he said.

And if the initiative passes, he'd like to organize mock-drone-hunting weekends to draw visitors to the sleepy town. "I don't know what the government would think about it," he said, "but it would be fun."

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Kristen Wyatt can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APkristenwyatt

TLALMANALCO, Mexico (AP) — Mexican authorities said Thursday that they have found a mass grave east of Mexico City and are testing to determine if it holds some of the 12 people who vanished from a bar in an upscale area of the capital nearly three months ago.

At least seven corpses had been recovered from the grave in Tlalmanalco, Mexico City prosecutor Rodolfo Rios told reporters at a news conference. He said the victims could not be identified from clothing, and the cause of death had not been determined.

"We will look at DNA tests that have been taken ... to confirm or discard scientifically if the bodies found are the people who disappeared from the bar," Rios said.

The federal Attorney General's Office said agents had been investigating weapons trafficking, not the mass kidnapping, when they discovered the grave. Rios said authorities were investigating who owns the property.

"They found a home that looked like a safe house," Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam told reporters. "We were operating under the belief it was a weapons case."

The young bar-goers vanished from the after-hours Heaven club at midday May 26, just a block from Mexico City's leafy Paseo de Reforma, the capital's equivalent of the Champs-Elysees.

View gallery."

Family members of youth who disappeared in May from a Mexico City nightclub listen to prosecutor Rod …

About 10 relatives of the missing marched into the news conference before it began to demand that they be informed first of what was going on. The families have criticized authorities for the lack of leads or explanation of what has happened in the weeks since their loved ones disappeared.

Later, some of the relatives showed up on the property being excavated, crying and covering their faces from the media.

"We have had three months with this anxiety," said Maria Teresa Ramos, grandmother of Jerzy Ortiz, one of the missing. "We are dying every day, little by little."

Rio said there were more bodies and the work would continue in an area near Rancho La Mesa Ecological Park in the state of Mexico. He said the excavation was difficult because of terrain and rainy weather that has made the ground muddy.

Authorities kept more than a mile perimeter around the excavation site on a hilly ranch, where federal police and attorney general's trucks and large white vans could be seen.

The land is private property, said a worker on a neighboring property who would not allow his name to be used. The ranch is walled and surrounded by oak and pine trees. Bulldozers could be heard off in the distance, as well as cows, rooster and other animals. The worker said it cannot be accessed by the public.

View gallery."

Prosecutor Rodolfo Rios, center right, gives a press conference regarding a mass grave that was foun …

Prosecutors have said the abductions from the bar were linked to a dispute between two rival drug gangs, one in Mexico City's dangerous Tepito neighborhood, home to most of the abducted. The families of the disappeared, however, say the missing young people were not involved in drug trafficking.

Surveillance cameras showed several cars pulling up to the bar and taking the victims away. A witness who escaped told authorities that a bar manager had ordered the music turned off, told patrons that authorities were about to raid the establishment and ordered those inside to leave.

The 12 have not been heard from since.

So far, six people have been detained in the Heaven case, including club owner Ernesto Espinosa Lobo, known as "The Wolf," who has been charged with kidnapping. Among the arrested are another bar owner, a driver and security guard.

One suspect is still a fugitive.

The bizarre disappearance resonated across the city of 9 million people because many had come to believe it was an oasis from Mexico's cartels and drug violence.

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FILE - In this file photo composite of images taken from flyers made by relatives showing 10 of at l …

The mass abduction of 12 mirrored crimes in drug-trafficking hot spots such as the western state of Michoacan, where 21 tourists disappeared, only to be found in a mass grave, or in Monterrey, where 17 kidnapped musicians were found dead at the bottom of a well.

Mexico City officials have insisted since the Heaven kidnapping that large drug cartels do not operate in the city. But the case has been a political liability, with local polls saying the public is overwhelmingly opposed to how Mayor Miguel Mancera has handled the case.

In another element of the case that is reminiscent of cartel warfare, one of the owners of the Heaven bar, Dax Rodriguez Ledezma, fled authorities only to turn up dead, his body dumped and burned in a rural area with that of his girlfriend and another friend.

Ricardo Martinez, a lawyer for relatives of the missing, told The Associated Press earlier that state and federal officials had informed him that 13 bodies had been found on a ranch east of Mexico City. He said officials suspected they belonged to those who disappeared from the bar.

Martinez said there are 13 bodies because the family of one of the disappeared never reported the person missing.

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Associated Press writers Mark Stevenson and E. Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City contributed to this report.