High death toll feared in western US wildfires

September 11 ------ More than two dozen major blazes continued to wreak havoc across wide swaths of California on Wednesday, while the neighboring state of Oregon bore the latest brunt of wildfires plaguing much of the western United States over the past week. Winds of up to 80 kilometers per hour sent flames racing tens of kilometers within hours, engulfing hundreds of homes as firefighters fought at least 35 large blazes in Oregon with a collective footprint nearly twice the size of New York City.

The unprecedented spate of fierce wildfires have all but destroyed five small towns in Oregon, leaving a potentially high death toll in their wake, the governor said on Wednesday, Hundreds of kilometers away in northern California, three fatalities were confirmed on Wednesday from a lightning-sparked conflagration that raged with renewed intensity this week after firefighters had made significant headway containing it. Several Oregon communities, including the town of Detroit in the Santiam Valley, as well as Blue River and Vida in coastal Lane County, and Phoenix and Talent in the southern part of the state, were substantially destroyed, Gov. Kate Brown told a news conference.

“This could be the greatest loss in human lives and property due to wildfire in our state’s history,” Brown said, without providing details. She described rescue teams saving evacuees by pulling them from rivers where they took refuge from flames.

‘Driving through hell’

Firefighters likewise were forced to retreat from uncontrollable blazes in Oregon, while officials gave residents “go now” orders to evacuate in just minutes. “It was like driving through hell,” Jody Evans told local television station NewsChannel21 after a midnight evacuation from Detroit, about 80 km west of Salem, Oregon’s capital.

To the south, parts of Medford, a city of more than 80,000 residents—many of them retirees—were under evacuation orders or warnings as a growing wildfire closed a section of Interstate 5, the primary north-south highway along the West Coast. “Absolutely no area in the state is free from fire,” said Doug Graf, fire protection chief for the Oregon Forestry Department. Climate scientists say global warming has contributed to greater extremes in wet and dry seasons across the US West, causing vegetation to flourish then dry out, leaving more abundant, volatile fuel for fires. In California, all 18 national forests were closed due to “unprecedented and historic fire conditions,” the US Forest Service said on Wednesday

The so-called Creek Fire, 56 km north of Fresno, tore through the Sierra National Forest, left especially susceptible to flames due to drought and bark beetle damage, destroying over 360 homes and other structures. “This fire is just burning at an explosive rate,” said Daniel Berlant, a spokesperson for California’s state fire authority. “You add the winds, the dry conditions, the hot temperatures, it’s the perfect recipe.”

Source: inquirer.net