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“You never think everything is going to go up in flames,” Marian Telersky, who lost her home in the southern Oregon town of Talent, told CNN affiliate KOBI.
Thousands of people have fled their homes in Oregon alone, including Lori Johnson, who was awakened in the middle of the night by police shortly before the fire consumed her home in Mill City.
“I came out without socks, with nothing, literally, with my clothes on my back,” she told CNN affiliate KATU from Salem, where she and her family are staying temporarily while they try to figure out what to do next.
About 100 large fires were burning Saturday (local time) in the western United States overall, including 12 in Idaho and nine in Montana, the National Interagency Fire Center said.
The fires have burned more than 4.5 million acres in 12 states.
In California, three of the five largest wildfires in state history are now burning, authorities say.
Little rain, high temperatures, and strong winds helped set the stage for the flames and feed them. And officials say it may take a long time for them to stop.
At least eight of Oregon’s wildfires are expected to burn “until the winter rains fall,” Oregon Department of Forestry Fire Chief Doug Grafe said Friday.
Oregon braces for ‘mass death incident’
While the death toll in Oregon was at least six on Saturday, the state is bracing for a “mass death incident” based on the number of structures that have been charred, the director of Emergency Management said Friday. Oregon, Andrew Phelps.
Dozens are already missing, the state governor said, mostly in Jackson, Lane and Marion counties in western Oregon.
In Lyons, more than 97jm south of Portland, the Beachie Creek Fire left neighborhoods in rubble and burned more than 186,000 acres.
“We had 29 houses on our block,” Monica Garrison told CNN affiliate KATU.
The Beachie Creek fire is the largest in the state and has no containment, authorities say. Firefighters are rushing to stop the blaze before it merges with the nearby Riverside Fire, which has burned more than 130,000 acres.
Roughly 500,000 people in Oregon are under some type of evacuation readiness alert. Royal evacuation orders have been issued for more than 40,000, Gov. Kate Brown said Friday.
‘I’ve never seen anything like this’
In California, firefighters are currently fighting more than two dozen major fires across the state, but officials on Friday expressed hope that improving weather conditions will boost firefighters’ efforts to control the flames.
Fires in the state have burned more than 3.1 million acres so far, 26 times more than what was burned at this time last year, according to Cal Fire. More than 3,900 structures have been destroyed this year, fire officials said.
In the Sierra Nevada mountain range north of Sacramento, the North Complex Fire has devastated the community of Berry Creek and the Plumas National Forest since a thunderstorm struck on August 17, consuming more than 252,000 acres.
That fire has killed at least nine people, including a 16-year-old boy fleeing the area in his vehicle, Butte County authorities say. More than a dozen were missing, the sheriff’s office said this week.
John Tripp, who evacuated his home in Butte County, says he has no idea what he will find when he returns.
“I’m from Miami. I’ve been through hurricanes. I’ve been through tornadoes. I’ve never seen anything like this,” he told CNN affiliate KCRA.
“It’s hard not knowing if you have something.”
The fire is burning a few miles from Paradise, which was devastated by the 2018 Camp Fire. People from part of that city were told to be ready to go early in the week.
“California is in the midst of an existential climate crisis,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said Friday.
“It was just two years ago that this area saw the deadliest wildfire in our history.
“Now, just a few miles away, another deadly wildfire has swept through these same communities.
“There is no question: climate change is here and it is happening faster than most had anticipated.”
Eighty percent of buildings in eastern Washington city destroyed
Meanwhile, the past five days in Washington have turned into the second-worst fire season in state history, the governor said Friday. Sixteen large fires were burning in the state as of Friday.
“These are not just wildfires, they are weather fires and we cannot and will not surrender our state,” said Governor Jay Inslee.
“When I look into the eyes of the people who lost their home and I see their tears, I think these people deserve a response to try to protect them and try to eliminate the threats.”
Governor Inslee visited a small town in eastern Washington earlier this week that was devastated by fires.
Eighty percent of Malden’s buildings, including the fire station, post office, town hall, and library, were completely destroyed.
“It looked like a bomb went off,” authorities said, according to CNN affiliate KIRO.
In another part of Washington, a one-year-old boy died and his parents were badly burned while trying to escape the wildfire, authorities said.
The family was visiting their property in a rural area west of Spokane and was evacuated in the middle of the night when the wildfire approached.
They abandoned their vehicle and ran into a river to flee the threatening flames, CNN affiliate KCRA reported. The couple was rescued from the river but their son was unable to do so.
