Photo: A boat motors by as the Bidwell Bar Bridge is surrounded by fire in Lake Oroville during the Bear Fire in Oroville, California, on September 9, 2020. Josh Edelson / AFP / Getty
The death toll has risen as huge fires sweep the US states of Washington, Oregon and California fuelled by dry weather and strong winds. It is believed that at least 7 people have now lost their lives including a 1-year-old boy in Northern Washington.
Others were killed in Ashland, Oregon, Salem, Oregon and Butte County, California.
The fires have already led to thousands of people being forced to flee their homes. In Northern California, a glow could be seen over the Bay Area and the Golden Gate Bridge. In Oregon, the fire has destroyed over 1,000 homes already. In some cases, residents had to pulled by helicopter from rivers that they had swam into to avoid the encompassing wall of flame.
While the Pacific states are no strangers to wildfires, the scale on which these have swept through are unprecedented. In terms of land burned, California has certainly seen nothing like it. Over 2.5 million acres have gone up in flames, a 20 fold-increase on last year. At least 480,000 acres have burned in Washington state, and at least 672,000 acres have burned in Oregon.
There are currently 30 large #wildfires burning 1,032,860 acres in Oregon & Washington. This is more than a 100% increase in just 48 hours. Conditions are still hot, dry & windy. Please be safe & take good care. https://t.co/ELFHinpbiP pic.twitter.com/yqjom0UnIl
— Forest Service NW (@ForestServiceNW) September 10, 2020
🚨 #BREAKING [🇺🇸] Apocalyptic sky in #SanFrancisco: The city wakes up shrouded in smoke and full of ash from the 25 active #wildfires in #California, #USA.pic.twitter.com/TTOVE9G6qU
— ISCResearch (@ISCResearch) September 9, 2020
Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon, said in a statement:
"We expect to see a great deal of loss, both in structures and in human lives. This could be the greatest loss of human lives and property due to wildfire in our state's history."
In many cases, winds have been so high, 45mph, that residents had little time to pack their things and escape as the fire spread so rapidly and with such force. The dry weather the pacific region has experienced has given the fire a huge amount of fuel with which to continue to feed itself.
An email sent out by Lane County to employees spoke of the horrendous loss they were facing. It said:
"This is a tragic day of epic proportions for Lane County. It appears that the communities of Blue River and Vida are a total loss – including an estimated 150 homes at this point. We have lost the Goodpasture Covered Bridge, the Belknap Covered Bridge and likely the McKenzie Bridge and Vida transfer stations. Over 1,000 homes have been evacuated.
Various options are currently being explored to house families that have been displaced, coordinate donation of supplies, and provide air quality respite for vulnerable populations. The livestock area at the Fairgrounds is being utilized to shelter displaced animals…."
Many speculate that we are now seeing such a wave of natural disasters due to global warming. At the start of this year, Australia experienced the worst wildfires on record as temperatures soared to over 50 degrees centigrade.
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