Wildfires continue grim advance
Amid dry heat and gusty winds, thousands of firefighters made little headway yesterday in containing scores of fires burning across the American West, as forecasts offered only slight hope that conditions would turn more favourable in the coming days.
A stiffening overnight wind from the north and east kicked up new fires and blew new life into simmering ones from the Cascade Range in the northwest to the Angeles National Forest east of Los Angeles.
Those winds are predicted to spike up in California’s south during the next few days, creating fresh concern that blazes in the region could be driven towards more populated areas.
The fires have fed on heat and dry conditions, particularly in California, where more than two dozen major fires were added yesterday to the record 930,000 hectares burned in the state so far this year.
Fires in parts of Washington state include some in regions with some of the highest rainfall totals in the US.
In Oregon, where a number of counties have been declared emergencies, the Glendower Fire in the state’s south grew yesterday and raced through the small cities of Talent and Phoenix, causing what witnesses described as major damage. The flames threatened Medford, a regional economic hub of 82,000 people.
More than 42,000 Oregonians have been ordered to evacuate
their homes. Some gathered in an evacuation centre at the state fairgrounds in the capital, Salem, described a rushed, fearful flight under a sky raining ash.
The new round of wildfires started during a record, nowfading heatwave that heightened fire risks across the West, where more than 70 fires are burning in at least half a dozen states.
This year the key driver of large fires – stiff, moisture-free offshore winds – have come weeks ahead of schedule and are threatening to supercharge fires in southern California as they strengthen in coming days.
Strong winds have whipped up the Bear Fire near Oroville, a city north of the state capital, Sacramento. A wind shift yester
day drove the flames west, and the fire’s footprint expanded by about 100,000ha in just 24 hours.
Three people died in the fire yesterday. Police said one victim was found in a car after apparently trying to escape the flames. Thousands of homes and other buildings are believed to have been damaged or destroyed.
The Bear Fire is not far from Paradise, the foothills city that burned to the ground two years ago in the deadliest fire in California’s history. Eighty-five people died.
Smoke from the Bear Fire and others in the north left Bay Area residents under a smokedarkened sky, lit a grim orange by the hazy sun, throughout the day. – AP