Wildfires ravage the West Coast
What happened
Apocalyptic wildfires ripped through California, Oregon, and Washington this week, forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate as the infernos turned skies blood-red across the West. At least 35 people have died and dozens more are missing in blazes that have so far scorched more than 5 million acres; California firefighters are now battling six of the 20 worst fires in the state’s history. Billowing clouds of toxic smoke forced flights to be canceled and schools to be shuttered, and authorities from Los Angeles to Seattle urged residents to stay indoors to avoid breathing some of the planet’s most polluted air. Scenes of devastation littered the Pacific Northwest. The small Oregon towns of Phoenix and Talent, home to 11,000 people combined, were reduced to ashes. “There’s nothing to sift through,” said Phoenix councilman Stuart Warren. Chris Tofte was racing to his family in Lyons, Ore., when he found a badly burned woman in the road. He helped her into his car, apologizing that he had to keep driving to find his wife and son. “I am your wife,” Angela Mosso whispered back.
President Trump diverted to California during a campaign trip, meeting with Gov. Gavin Newsom and state officials who explained how climate change is fueling wildfires. “It will start getting cooler, you just watch,” Trump said. Democratic challenger Joe Biden said Trump’s refusal to acknowledge man-made warming made him a “climate arsonist.” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported this week that the Northern Hemisphere had its hottest summer on record in 2020, while globally, last month ranked as the second-warmest August since records began in 1880.
What the editorials said
Blame “disastrous forest mismanagement” for this tragedy, said NationalReview.com. Fire is a natural manager of forests, and in the preindustrial era, “more than 4 million acres burned in California annually.” But in the 20th century, federal and state agencies put a “monomaniacal emphasis” on fire suppression, extinguishing even the smallest blazes. As a result, overcrowded forests filled with dead trees “became literal tinderboxes.”