Air quality in danger zone as fires burn millions of acres

The prospect of scattered rain in the Pacific Northwest raised hopes for better firefighting conditions in Washington and Oregon on Wednesday, after weeks of oppressive heat, hazardous air and unpredictable fires that have grown with terrifying speed up and down the coast.

Though the storm system was not forecast to be significant, the possibility of rain clouds in coastal regions — instead of smoke plumes and falling ash — was a lifeline for residents after weeks of increasingly grim news. More than 30 people have died in wildfires in the past two months, hundreds of homes have been destroyed, and thousands of people remain in evacuation shelters.

Inland and to the south, the forecast was less encouraging. Parts of Central Oregon were expecting gusts up to 35 mph in the afternoon that could contribute to a ‘‘significant spread’’ of new and existing fires, the National Weather Service in Medford, Oregon, said. Up to 29 fires were active in the state Wednesday, spread over more than 843,500 acres.

And in California, there was not even temporary relief in sight, with the state fire agency saying Tuesday, ‘‘With no significant precipitation in sight, California remains dry and ripe for wildfires.’’ State leaders, facing not just this wildfire season, spoke about the need to face an indefinite future of fires worsened by climate change.

‘‘Firefighters themselves, with decades of experience, are telling me that they’ve never seen fires like this before because of the extreme aridity combined with wind,’’ Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington state said at a news conference Tuesday.

As of early Wednesday, there were at least 25 major wildfires and fire complexes, the term given to multiple fires in a single geographic area, burning in California, Christine Mcmorrow, a Cal Fire information officer, said.

More than 2.8 million acres have either burned since Aug. 15 or are on fire now, she said.

Late Tuesday, emergency officials reported progress on some of the biggest fires around the region. The growth of the Beachie Creek fire, which has burned more than 190,000 acres east of Salem, Oregon, had slowed, and the fire was 20% contained as of Wednesday morning. The August Complex fire, which has burned almost 800,000 acres north of Sacramento, was 30% contained, and the 220,000acre North Complex fire, to its east, was 18% contained.

Inslee said that Washington state was now in position to help its neighbors, if in a small way, by sharing some of its resources with Oregon.

‘‘We’re confident right now that we have enough personnel and equipment to protect our communities,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s not a lot but it is a gesture that, again, we are all in this together.’’

But he also warned residents of Western states that stepping outside exposed them to some of the worst air conditions in the world. The air, he said, was at ‘‘historically polluted levels’’ and ‘‘unhealthy at best and hazardous at worst, according to our state health experts.’’

Physical hazards remain even in areas where the fires are no longer active, authorities also warned. In addition to damaged structures and trees at risk of collapse, hundreds of electrical poles have been burned, leaving live wires on roadways or at risk of falling on pedestrians. And countless trees and branches are now dangers to anyone nearby. In a dashboard video tweeted by the Oregon State Police, a trooper’s car can be seeing driving through the haze of a forested road when a huge tree suddenly collapses on the vehicle.

WASHINGTON — The government outlined a sweeping plan Wednesday to make vaccines for COVID-19 available for free to all Americans, assuming a safe and effective shot is developed, even as top health officials faced questions about political interference with virus information reaching the public.

In a report to Congress and an accompanying “playbook” for states and localities, federal health agencies and the Defense Department sketched out complex plans for a vaccination campaign to begin gradually in January or even late this year, eventually ramping up to reach any American who wants a shot. The Pentagon would be involved with the distribution of vaccines, but civilian health workers would be the ones giving shots.

The whole enterprise faces remaining skepticism. Only about half of Americans said they’d get vaccinated in an Associated PRESS-NORC poll taken in May. Since then, questions have only mounted about whether the government is trying to rush treatments and vaccines to help President Donald Trump’s reelection chances.

On Wednesday, the Health and Human Services Department announced that political appointee Michael Caputo would take a leave of absence. The news followed revelations that the senior communications official had tried to gain editorial control over scientific publications on COVID-19 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which he contended were hurting the Trump administration.

The director of the CDC, Dr. Robert Redfield, responding Wednesday before Senate lawmakers, rejected questions over whether the government’s timeline for states to be ready for a vaccine by Nov. 1 was politically motivated.

Redfield told the Senate Appropriations Committee that the “scientific integrity” of his agency’s output “has not been compromised and it will not be compromised under my watch.”

He said he was “deeply saddened” by Caputo’s accusations that CDC staff were working as a “resistance unit” against the administration.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the committee’s top Democrat, said political interference had damaged public trust in the government’s health information .

“The Trump administration needs to leave the science to the scientists immediately,” Murray said.

Although Trump asserted Tuesday that a vaccine could be three to four weeks away, Redfield, made clear to Congress that any version available this year would be in “very limited supply.” The shot wouldn’t be broadly available to most of the U.S. population until the summer of 2021, he estimated.

Trump’s press secretary, Kayleigh Mcenany, quickly repeated the president’s version at the White House: “We do believe that it will be widely available by the end of the year.”

As for the planned vaccine campaign, the CDC playbook for states says it is “much larger in scope and complexity than seasonal influenza or other previous outbreak-related vaccination responses.” Redfield said that his agency will be working with state health officials to execute the vaccination plan in coming days.

Among the highlights of the plan: • For most vaccines, people will need two doses, 21 to 28 days apart. Doubledose vaccines will have to come from the same drugmaker. There could be several vaccines from different manufacturers approved and available.

• Vaccination of the U.S. population won’t be a sprint but a marathon. Initially there may be a limited supply of vaccines, and the focus will be on protecting health workers, other essential employees, and people in vulnerable groups. “Early in (the) COVID-19 vaccination program there may be a limited supply of vaccine and vaccine efforts may focus on those critical to the response, providing direct care and maintaining societal functions, as well as those at highest risk for developing severe illness,” Redfield said. A second and third phase would expand vaccination to the entire population.

• The vaccine itself would be free of charge, thanks to billions of dollars in taxpayer funding approved by Congress and allocated by the Trump administration. The goal is that patients won’t be separately charged for administration of their shots, and officials say they are working to ensure that’s the case for all Medicare recipients and uninsured people as well those covered by insurance at their jobs.

• States and local communities will need to devise precise plans for receiving and locally distributing vaccines, some of which will require special handling such as refrigeration or freezing. States and cities have a month to submit plans.

• A massive information technology effort will be needed to track who is getting which vaccines and when, and the key challenge involves getting multiple public and private databases to link with each other.

Some of the broad components of the federal plan have already been discussed, but Wednesday’s reports attempt to put the key details into a comprehensive framework. Distribution is under the umbrella of Operation Warp Speed, a White House-backed initiative to have vaccines ready to ship in 24 hours from when a version is given emergency use approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Several formulations are undergoing final trials.

However, public skepticism remains. Of the Americans who said in the May AP poll that they wouldn’t get vaccinated, the overwhelming majority said they were worried about safety. To effectively protect the nation from the coronavirus, experts say 70% to 90% of Americans must either be vaccinated or have their own immunity from fighting off COVID-19.