Smoke suffocates the west coast of the U.S. as wildfire deaths continue to rise

Smoke from wildfires that posed a health hazard to millions of people suffocated the west coast of the United States on Saturday as firefighters battled deadly fires that swept through some cities and displaced tens of thousands of people, the latest of one series of calamities this year.

For people already suffering from the coronavirus pandemic, the resulting economic fallout and political tensions evident in the Black Lives Matter protests and far-right protests, the fires added a new layer of misery.

“What’s next? You have the protests, the coronavirus pandemic, now the forest fires.

“What else can go wrong?” Lamented Danielle Oliver, 40, of Happy Valley, southeast of Portland.

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The death toll from the fires in California, Oregon and Washington amounted to 28 and was expected to increase dramatically. Most of the deaths occurred in California and Oregon.

Oregon’s director of emergency management said officials were preparing for a possible “mass death event” if many more bodies turn up in the ashes.

And the state fire marshal resigned after being abruptly put on administrative leave.

The state police superintendent said the crisis called for an urgent response that required a change of leadership.

Oliver has an autoimmune disorder that makes her vulnerable to wildfire smoke, so she agreed to evacuate.

She was nervous about going to a shelter because of the virus, but sleeping in a car with her husband, 15-year-old daughter, two dogs and a cat was not a viable option.

Temperature controls and social distancing at the American Red Cross shelter helped reassure her.

Now the family waits, hoping their house will survive. She had previously experienced homelessness.

“I’m tired. I’m tired of starting over. Getting everything, working for everything, then losing everything,” he said.

Those who still had homes were not safe in them. Half a million Oregonians were under evacuation warnings or orders to leave.

With air pollution levels at record highs, people placed towels under door jambs to keep smoke out. Some even wore N95 masks in their own homes.

Some communities resembled the cities of Europe bombed after World War II, with buildings reduced to charred rubble piled on blackened earth. Residents managed to flee when the flames approached or perished.

Millicent Catarancuic’s body was found near a car on her 5-acre property in Berry Creek, California. The flames came so fast that he didn’t have time to get out.

On Tuesday, he put several of his cats and dogs in the car, but then called his daughter to say he decided to stay.

Firefighters had made progress in fighting the blaze. The wind was calm. The flames still seemed far away. They then ran toward the property.

“I feel like, maybe when they passed by, they had an army of cats and dogs with her to help her,” said her daughter, Holly Catarancuic.

In Oregon alone, more than 40,000 people have been evacuated and about 500,000 are in different levels of evacuation zones, Gov. Kate Brown said.

Fires along Oregon’s Cascade Range increased on Saturday, but at a slower rate than earlier in the week, when strong easterly winds acted as a bellows, pushing two large fires, the Beachie Creek Fire and the Riverside Fire. , towards each other and towards the main population of the state. centers, including the southeastern suburbs of Portland.

Firefighters got good news: higher humidity significantly reduced the flames.

In California, a total of 28 active large fires have burned 4,375 square miles and 16,000 firefighters are trying to douse the flames, said Cal Fire Deputy Assistant Director Daniel Berlant.

Large wildfires also continued to burn in northeast Washington state.

In all, 19 people have died in California since wildfires began to break out across the state in mid-August.

US President Donald Trump will visit California on Monday for a briefing on the West Coast fires, the White House announced.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and the governors of the states of California, Oregon and Washington, all Democrats, have said the fires are the result of global warming.

“It is absolutely necessary to act now to avoid a future defined by an endless barrage of tragedies like the one American families are suffering in the West today,” Biden said.

The same smoke that painted California skies orange also helped crews corner the state’s deadliest fire of the year by blocking out the sun, lowering temperatures and increasing humidity, authorities said.

The smoke also created colder conditions in Oregon, but it was also blamed for producing the dirtiest air in at least 35 years in some places.

The air quality index reading Saturday morning in Salem, the state capital, was 512.

The scale normally goes from zero to 500.

“Over 500 is literally off the charts,” said Laura Gleim, spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

Because air quality in the past was never this bad, the government’s yardstick for measuring it was capped at 500, Gleim said. The department began monitoring in 1985.

The weather conditions that led to the fires and fueled the flames were likely a once-in-a-generation event, said Greg Jones, a professor and researcher climatologist at Linfield University in McMinnville, Oregon.

A large area of ​​high pressure stretching from the desert southwest to Alaska brought strong easterly winds to the west coast, reducing relative humidity by 8% and bringing desert conditions, even to the coast, Jones said.

Instead of the offshore flows normally enjoyed by the Pacific Northwest, strong easterly winds pushed the fires toward the western slopes of the Cascade Range.

It’s unclear whether global warming caused the conditions, Jones said, but a warmer world can increase the likelihood of extreme events and contribute to their severity.

The smoke in Portland filled the air with a pungent metallic smell like pennies.

It was so thick that Ashley Kreitzer couldn’t see the road when she drove to work as a transport driver.

“I couldn’t even see five feet in front of me,” he said. “I panicked, I didn’t even know if I wanted to go out.”

George Coble had no home to return to. On Saturday he arrived with some of his employees in a wasteland of charred tree trunks outside of Mill City, Oregon.

Coble lost everything: his fence and pole business, five houses in a family complex, and vintage cars, including a 1967 Mustang.

The family, three generations who lived in the complex, were evacuated with seven people, three horses, five dogs and a cat.

“We will keep working and keep our heads up and thank God they all came out,” Coble said. “There are other people who lost their family. Just be grateful for what you came out. “

Whitehurst reported from Portland. Associated Press writers Gillian Flaccus in Mill City, Oregon, Gene Johnson in Seattle, and Adam Beam in Sacramento, California, contributed to this report.