Oregon wildfires: Half a million people
flee dozens of infernos
Image copyrightREUTERScaptionMore than 10% of
Oregon’s population are fleeing, according to the Oregon Office of
Emergency Management
More than half a million people
in the US state of Oregon are fleeing deadly wildfires that are
raging across the Pacific Northwest, authorities say.
Fanned by unusually hot, dry winds, dozens of infernos are
sweeping the state, and at least one is being treated as suspected
arson.
Governor Kate Brown said the exact number of fatalities was not
yet known, though at least four were confirmed.
More than 100 wildfires are currently scorching 12 western US
states.
Oregon, California and Washington have borne the brunt of the
wildfires, which have in several cases destroyed entire towns. In
California alone, at least 10 deaths have been confirmed.
- Smoke from California wildfires
turns skies orange
Some 4.4 million acres have been razed, according to the
National Interagency Fire Center – slightly smaller than the area
of Wales.
What is the latest in
Oregon?
On Thursday evening, the Oregon Office of Emergency Management
confirmed the latest evacuation figures, which amount to more than
10% of the state’s 4.2 million population.
Rich Tyler, a spokesman for the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s
office, told the New York Times: “When you have a fire
that burns through homes and businesses, you have open gas lines
that are still spewing out natural gas, and those are burning.”
Governor Brown, a Democrat, said in a news conference: “We have
never seen this amount of uncontained fire across the state… This
will not be a one-time event. Unfortunately, it is the bellwether
of the future. We’re feeling the acute impacts of climate
change.”
Image copyrightREUTERScaptionA colour infrared
satellite image shows destroyed homes after the Alameda Fire in
Phoenix, Oregon: burned vegetation and property appear grey,
surviving vegetation is in red
Among the evacuees are more than 1,300 mostly female prisoners
from the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville. The
prison is under threat from two large wildfires that authorities
believe could be about to merge.
The victims in Oregon include a 12-year-old boy and his
grandmother, who died in a wildfire near Lyons, 70 miles (112km)
south of Portland.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGEScaptionDozens of infernos
are sweeping the state of Oregon
One of the most destructive blazes, the Almeda Fire, which
started in Ashland near the border with California, is being
treated by police as suspicious. It has been linked to at least two
deaths and destroyed hundreds of homes in the towns of Phoenix and
Talent.
Ashland Police Chief Tighe O’Meara said: “We have good reason to
believe that there was a human element to it.”
But rumours that fires in the Douglas County area were started
by members of the left-wing “anti-fascist” or right-wing Proud Boys
groups have been discounted by police.
The wildfires have also prompted mass evacuations in the suburbs
of Portland. According to the Portland Tribune newspaper, the
pollution in the city on Thursday was ranked highest in the world,
above Jakarta, Indonesia; Delhi, India; and Lahore, Pakistan.
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night-time in the daytime”: San Francisco’s skies turn orange
What is the situation
elsewhere?
In Washington state, a one-year-old boy died and his parents
were in a critical condition after smoke and flames overwhelmed
them as they tried to escape the state’s largest wildfire, said
officials in the northern county of Okanogan.
A wildfire also destroyed most of the homes in the old railroad
town of Malden, in the east of the state. Police had run through
the streets shouting at residents to flee for their lives as the
flames closed in.
California’s 2020 wildfires
In California, authorities in Butte County north of Sacramento
have found 10 bodies in the last two days, and there are fears the
toll will rise as 16 people remain unaccounted for.
There, some 64,000 people were under evacuation orders while
14,000 firefighters battled 29 major fires. An evacuation order has
been issued for the community of Paradise which was largely
destroyed in the 2018 Camp fire.
Six of the top 20 largest fires in the state’s history have
occurred this year.
Saying goodbye to our first
home
Sam Elm and her partner, Micah, lived in Phoenix,
Oregon. Sam shared her experience fleeing from the wildfire – and
saying goodbye to their home – with BBC OS.
A fire started in a nearby town and began encroaching. “It took
our home,” she says. “It was an intense experience.”
“We were listening to the scanners…we were hearing it get closer
and closer.
“At a certain point we got a call saying ‘you need to leave
right now.’ It was raining ash on – everything.”
As they were about to leave, Sam says her wife called her
upstairs to a wall in their home decorated with the signatures of
friends, and members of their community – which Sam says was a
“point of pride” for them.
“She slams her hand on the wall – because we’ve never signed our
own wall, because it was our house we lived in – she traced her
hand, she slammed my hand on the wall, she traced my hand, she
kissed me and said: ‘Don’t forget this was our first home. And we
left.”
IcopyrightSAM AND MICAH ELM
captionSam Elm (left) and
her wife Micah Elm had their first home burn down in a
fire
Sam adds that she and her wife were the lucky ones. “Not
everybody got to say goodbye to their homes – we did. Our pets are
with us. We know people whose pets got stuck in their houses…we
know people that are missing.”
Sam and Micah are currently staying with a friend, hoping to get
a hotel room through insurance.
But she doesn’t know what six months down the line looks like
now that they’ve lost their home. She says she has no clue “how to
traverse any of this”.