[ad_1]
Wildfires ravaging the west coast of the United States have killed at least 35 people, 27 of them in the past week, and several are missing.
Cities from Los Angeles in the south to Vancouver in the north are covered in gray ash and air pollution, and thousands of buildings have gone up in smoke.
Images of the areas affected by the fire show significant damage. Entire landscapes are covered in soot and smoke, and buildings are reduced to piles of bricks and concrete.
According to CNN, crisis management in Oregon is poised for a massive death.
Worst in 13 years
Nailah Garner and her husband are among the many who had to flee their homes in the small town of Vida in Oregon last week. Everything they own has now gone up in smoke.
– Everything is gone. It looks like a war zone, he tells KOMO News.
97 fires
On Saturday, the national fire service recorded 97 fires.
(The case continues below the graphic).
Smoke from fires makes the air quality very poor and can increase the risk of lung infections, such as the coronavirus.
The California fires are unparalleled in size and have burned an area of 1.3 million acres. One of them, the “August Complex” fire, is larger than any other known fire in California history. It started about 40 different smaller fires and now covers an area of over 350,000 hectares.
Little rain, high temperatures and strong winds have contributed fuel to the fire, and it is unclear how long it will take to control it.
When the earth burns
California Fire Department spokesman Steve Kaufmann told CNN that more than 16,000 firefighters are fighting the blaze in the state, which has killed 22 people. Among them Josiah Williams (16).
President Donald Trump will visit McClellan Park in California on Monday to get an overview of the wildfires and see the damage.
– I’ve talked to people in Oregon and Washington. They have never experienced anything like it, he said Saturday night.
– Apocalyptic
Among those killed in the Oregon fires are Wyatt Tofte, 13, and his grandmother Peggy Mosso (71). The 13-year-old boy was found dead in a car with his dog on his lap. Mosso was also found in a car.
The mother of the 13-year-old boy and Angela’s daughter, 71, are in critical condition. It is said that she has burns all over her body.
“We are preparing for mass deaths, based on what we know and the number of buildings lost,” Andrew Phelps, director of the Oregon Crisis and Emergency Management Agency, said at a news conference Friday.
500,000 people are under evacuation notice in the state. The alerts are divided into three parts, from “be prepared to evacuate” to “evacuate NOW.”
– It’s apocalyptic. “I drove 600 miles (965 kilometers) up and down the state, and I never escaped the smoke,” Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon told ABC’s “This Week.”
Baby died
A one-year-old boy died and his parents were badly burned when they tried to escape from the sea of flames in Washington.
The family was evacuated from Spokane in the middle of the night, but had to leave the car and run towards a river. The parents were rescued, but the son did not survive.
Prepared for mass death
Another child died in the “Cold Springs” fire in Omak, near the Canadian border.
– My heart bleeds for the family that lost their son in the “Cold Springs” fire. I’m heartbroken. The pain this family is going through is now unimaginable, says Hillary Franz, a Washington politician.
80 percent of the buildings in the city of Malden have been destroyed.
– It looked like a bomb had exploded, authorities say.
Among those who have lost their homes is Jim Murray (59). He had plans to enjoy his retirement at Malden.
– Now I’m not sure if we’ll rebuild. I have a feeling that it will now become a ghost town.
The heat and high winds that have contributed to the spread of the fires along the west coast are now expected to subside. This will likely make it easier for firefighters to fight the flames.
Warns
More than 30,000 firefighters are fighting the flames, and meteorologists have warned that the wind could pick up again and cause the fires to spread again in the very dry terrain.
Most of the deaths have been in California and Oregon, but also in the state of Washington, in the far northwest of the United States, it is burning.