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Half a million people in Oregon, about a quarter of the state’s population, were ordered to evacuate after unprecedented wildfires on the west coast of the United States, local authorities said today, expressing fears of more victims in the coming. days.
At least eight people have been confirmed dead in the states of California, Oregon and Washington in the past 24 hours, but authorities say access to some areas is still impossible. Police also announced another 7 deaths in Bute County, California.
“About 500,000 Oregonians have been evacuated from their homes and that number continues to rise,” state officials said in a statement, adding that firefighters were fighting a blaze that spread to 3,650,000 acres in Oregon. , an area that is a “record”.
In that state, the Asland police chief said authorities had launched an investigation into the alleged arson that broke out in Oregon City, destroying hundreds of homes in nearby communities.
Two people were found dead in the fire, which broke out Tuesday and has lasted a third day amid multiple wildfires across the state, according to a fire department spokesman.
More are expected to be found as rescuers search for the remains of houses engulfed in flames during a chaotic evacuation of residential areas found in the course of the blaze, according to Asland Police Chief Tige O’Mira.
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“We tried to evacuate people as soon as we could,” he told Reuters by phone. “There is a possibility that bodies will be found in some of these houses. The possibility of a much larger number (of losses) is high.”
The fire, called Almenda, broke out Tuesday morning in Asland, a city of 21,000 in southern Oregon just 26 miles from the California border and home to the University of Southern Oregon and the Shakespeare Festival. Oregon.
The fire, which was started by high winds, caused relatively little damage in Asland, but quickly spread beyond the city and into neighboring communities along Bear Creek, before spreading to the neighboring cities of Talent and Phoenix to Medford. , a city of 82,000 inhabitants. according to the chief of police.
Citing local media reports that nearly 600 houses had been destroyed, O’Miri said “hundreds of houses were lost” in the fire.
Reuters footage from the fire zone shows charred vehicles, building debris and debris along the Route 99 freeway that links Asland to Medford.
This area is inaccessible for residents who have moved away from their homes, but here and there you can see single people or couples walking down the road carrying things that they apparently managed to save from their homes.
Medford police, as well as Douglas County in the north, issued a warning following rumors that left-wing anti-fascists and right-wing extremists Proud Boy had started the fire.
Rich Tyler, a spokesman for the State Fire Department, said in a statement that it was not immediately clear if any of the fires that broke out in Oregon this week were started.
“Every fire is being investigated for the possibility that it is due to arson, so that we can decide if it was because of it (arson) or to rule it out,” he said.
O’Mira noted that those investigating the Almenda fire, led by inspectors from his service, viewed the fire as suspicious, but declined to comment further.
“We have reason to believe that there was a human element in this,” he said. “We will treat it as a criminal investigation until we have reason to believe it was not.”
The Almenda Fire is one of dozens of devastating wildfires in the western United States in recent days, killing at least 15 people in the states of California, Oregon and Washington.
In addition to the two bodies found in the Almenda fire, among those killed in Oregon are a 12-year-old boy and his grandmother, who are believed to have died in another fire near Lyons, further north.
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