‘Evacuate now’: Wildfires grow in Oregon, US as 500,000 flee

Deadly wildfires in densely populated northwestern Oregon, USA, are growing, with hundreds of thousands of people being told to flee the invading flames as residents of the south tearfully assess their losses.

The number of people ordered to evacuate statewide due to the fires rose to an estimated 500,000, more than 10 percent of the state’s 4.2 million people, the Oregon Office of Emergency Management reported. Thursday night. The number was calculated by determining how many people live in mandatory evacuation zones, agency spokeswoman Bobbi Doan said. The Oregon Convention Center in Portland was one of the buildings being transformed into shelters for evacuees from wildfires.

A fire approached Molalla, prompting a mandatory evacuation order for the community of approximately 9,000 residents located 30 miles south of Portland. A police car was driving through the streets with a loud speaker that said “evacuate now.”

The inmates were moved from a women’s prison less than a mile off Interstate 5 in Portland’s southern suburbs “as a precaution,” the Oregon Department of Corrections said.

With two large fires threatening to merge, some firefighters in Clackamas County, which includes Molalla, have been told to temporarily withdraw due to the danger. Officials tried to reassure residents who left their homes and law enforcement officials said police patrols would be intensified to prevent looting.

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* Massive clouds of smoke, thick air obscuring skies over the western US.

The local fire department said on Twitter: “To be clear, your firefighters are still hard at work on the wildfires in Clackamas County. They are taking a ‘tactical break’ to allow firefighters to reposition themselves, take responsibility and assess extreme fire conditions. “

“We have not abandoned them,” firefighters said.

Residents of the small town of Phoenix in Oregon, near the California state line, endured a scene of devastation after one of the state’s many wildfires wiped out much of their community. A mobile home park, houses and businesses were burned, leaving twisted remains on the charred ground.

Many of the residents were immigrants, with few resources to turn to.

Artemio Guterrez stood helpless next to his truck, inspecting the rubble of his mobile home. His sons sat quietly in the bed of the truck and waited for him to salvage what he could. He found a ceramic pot with a smiley face, some charred miniature houses from a Christmas-themed village, and a cross that was formed when two pieces of glass melted together.

Guterrez, a single father of four, was working in a nearby vineyard when he saw thick smoke billowing through the Rogue River Valley. He rushed home just in time to snatch his children from the trailer park where they live alongside dozens of other Mexican families. They came out only with the clothes they were wearing.

“I’m going to start over. It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible either. You have to be a little harsh in situations like this, ”said Guterrez, who had just returned from his mother’s funeral in Mexico.

Entire mobile home parks with many units occupied by Mexican immigrants working in nearby vineyards or under construction were burned to the ground in nearby Phoenix and Talent.

“We are like a family. We’ve known each other for years, since we got here or even before, ”Guterrez said of his Talent Mobile Estates neighbors. “We live from day to day.”

As the fire approached Phoenix, Jonathan Weir defied evacuation orders, even as 30-foot-tall flames shot out of the trees. Fearing for his life, he drove his car to the entrance of a nearby mobile home park, where his tires began to melt. His home was destroyed when fire tore through the town of 4,000 residents.

“There were flames across the street, flames on my right, flames on my left. I just saw everything burn, ”Weir told a reporter.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimated that 600 homes were burned in the fire that started in Ashland and swept through Phoenix, the Medford Mail Tribune reported.

Oregon officials have not released an exact count of deaths from the wildfires, but at least four deaths have been reported in the state. One person died in wildfires in Washington.

Oregon officials said they were shocked by the number of simultaneous fires, which stood at 37 on Thursday, according to the state’s Office of Emergency Management.

Gov. Kate Brown said more than 3,600 square kilometers have burned in Oregon in the past three days, nearly double the land burned in a typical year in the state and an area larger than the size of Rhode Island.

The Pacific Northwest fires fueled unsubstantiated posts on social media blaming coordinated groups of arsonists from both the far left and right for sparking the flames. Officials turned to Facebook to squash competing narratives.

Journalists have captured searing and intimate images of active and dangerous wildfires in California, due in large part to a decades-old state law that guarantees the press virtually unrestricted access to disaster sites in evacuated areas outside of the state. reach of the public. Access is not as open in other wildfire-prone states.

Back in Phoenix, Marty Curtis considered herself lucky. His house was saved and he escaped with his cat, Louie.

“You could see the flames. You could hear things exploding: gas tanks and propane tanks exploding, ”he said. “I have my house. I have my life I have my cat and I have my job, and right now, that’s all I need. “