Stunned residents tour Oregon town devastated by wildfires
Stunned residents of the small Oregon town of Phoenix walked through a scene of devastation Thursday after one of the state’s many wildfires wiped out much of their community, including a mobile home park, houses and businesses.
But even as residents in southern Oregon near the California border were assessing their losses, other wildfires in the northwest part of the state were growing, with more people told to flee for their lives.
By Thursday evening, the number of people evacuated statewide because of fires had climbed to an estimated 500,000, the Oregon Office of Emergency Management reported. That’s more than 10% of the state’s 4.2 million population.
Officials in Oregon said one of the most destructive fires, which incinerated whole neighborhoods in two towns, may have been deliberately set.
Three law enforcement agencies in Oregon, including the Ashland Police Department and the State Police, said they had opened an arson investigation for the Almeda Fire, which has been linked to at least two deaths and destroyed roughly 600 homes in the towns of Talent and Phoenix.
After spending the night in their cars in a Home Depot parking lot on the outskirts of Phoenix, a stream of people walked into what was left of the town that hugs Interstate 5. They hauled wagons and carried backpacks and bags to salvage whatever they could.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimated 600 homes were burned by the fire that started in Ashland and tore through Phoenix, the Mail Tribune of Medford, Ore., reported.
At least 16 people have died in the wildfires across Oregon, Washington state and California, where hot, dry and windy weather combined to create nearperfect conditions for flames.
Thirty- nine simultaneous fires were burning in Oregon on Thursday morning, according to the state Office of Emergency Management.
Gov. Kate Brown said more than 900,000 acres have burned across the state in the past three days — nearly double the territory that burns in a typical year. She told a news conference the exact number of fatalities was not yet known. More than 80,000 people have fled their homes, Ms. Brown tweeted.
Back in Phoenix, Jerry Walker fled in his pajamas and only had time to grab some cash. He did not know if his apartment complex survived.
“I’ve never seen devastation like this ever in my life,” Mr. Walker said. “I don’t know how we’re going on to recover.”
At least three people in Oregon were reported killed, including a boy and his grandmother, and several others critically burned. Deaths in Washington included a 1- year- old boy.
Elsewhere, wildfires damaged towns in a canyon and the foothills of the Cascade Range, where the remains of a boy and his dog were found. The small farming town of Malden in eastern Washington was mostly destroyed, losing its fire station, post office, city hall and library.
Assisted by neighbors and strangers, Catherine Shields evacuated her home in Silverton with a menagerie of animals. As smoke obscured the sun and ash fell from the sky, the group helped load three horses, a donkey, two llamas, a dozen sheep, geese, ducks, turkeys and dogs into trailers and vehicles.
She marveled at how people were pulling together despite the nation’s political divisiveness.
“People are doing their best,” Ms. Shields said Wednesday as she walked one of the horses at the fairgrounds.
Lloyd Dean Holland, a Vietnam veteran, barely escaped his home in Estacada, Ore. on Tuesday night. He left his rental house as flames exploded in cedar trees around him. He said his sole remaining possessions — his dog, rifles, dentures and some clothing — were all in the truck he used to flee.
“I’ve been through hell and high water but nothing like this. I’ve been shot down and shot at but this — last night — I’m still not over it,” Mr. Holland said.