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PORTLAND: Heavy smog from U.S. wildfires that burned nearly 5 million acres and killed 27 people suffocated the West Coast on Saturday (Sept. 12) as presidential challenger Joe Biden warned that climate change it is becoming an existential problem.
US officials braced for the possibility of more deaths as large tracts of land in California, Oregon and Washington remained cut off by flames fueled by dry tinder conditions like those caused by climate change.
Unprecedented hells have now destroyed an area roughly the size of New Jersey.
“The science is clear and deadly signs like these are unmistakable: Climate change poses an imminent existential threat to our way of life,” said Biden, the Democratic candidate who will face President Donald Trump at the polls on November 3.
“President Trump may try to deny that reality, but the facts are undeniable,” he said.
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The political spat comes as Trump prepares to visit California on Monday for a briefing on the wildfires, which he had previously tried to blame on mismanagement by state officials.
Adding to the sense of environmental catastrophe, the world’s five most air-polluted cities were on the West Coast on Saturday, according to IQAir, with thick fog and ash from the fires blanketing the atmosphere from Los Angeles to Vancouver in Canada.
Local residents cross a street as wildfire smoke blankets an area near Salem, Oregon, USA, September 10, 2020. REUTERS / Carlos Barria
In Portland, thick and suffocating smoke covered downtown on Saturday morning.
“It’s like I’ve smoked 100 cigarettes. I’ve never seen this before, but we try to stay positive as conditions improve,” said a 37-year-old man who identified himself only as Jessie.
“FALLEN FROM THE SKY”
More than 20,000 firefighters are fighting the flames, and officials warn that a respite provided by the arrival of cooler weather could end on Monday with the return of warmer and drier weather.
Emergency Officer Andrew Phelps warned that Oregon is “preparing for a mass fatality incident based on what we know and how many structures have been lost.”
A man walks past CORT Furniture Outlet on Sutter St as an orange haze from wildfires covers San Francisco, California on September 9, 2020 in this image taken from social media. (Photo: Reuters / Adrianna Tan)
In California, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said additional officials had been brought in to check for human remains, but “right now, the areas we have to search are too hot.”
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Oregon has suffered four more deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll in the West Coast region this week alone to 19.
Among them was a 13-year-old boy found in a car with his dog on his lap in Oregon. The road was so hot that it had melted the tires while trying to flee.
A 56-year-old woman told AFP that she and her daughter do not know if their ash-covered home in Aims, a short distance east of Portland, is still standing.
“To be honest, if we have to rebuild, we have to rebuild … I am grateful that we are alive,” she said.
“We saw a bird flying and then all of a sudden it just fell out of the sky … if it’s killing God’s creatures, I don’t want to die too. So we left.”
ANATOMICAL SKELETON
California has already seen more than 3.2 million acres burn this year, an annual record, about the size of Connecticut, with nearly four months of fire season to come.
Governor Newsom painted a grim picture of California as the canary in the coal mine of climate change.
“This is a bloody weather emergency,” he said in televised comments while touring the damage in Butte County on Friday. “This is real and it is happening.
READ: Fleeing harder from California wildfires during the COVID-19 pandemic
Huge wildfires are becoming more common, and the World Meteorological Organization says the five years to 2019 were unprecedented for fires, especially in Europe and North America.
Climate change amplifies droughts that dry up regions, creating ideal conditions for wildfires to spread uncontrollably and inflict enormous material and environmental damage.
Nine people have been confirmed dead from a fire in California’s North Butte County, which was fueled at an unprecedented rate earlier in the week by strong, dry winds and high temperatures.
In a rare piece of good news, an alleged 10th fire victim turned out to be a burned anatomical skeleton from a local classroom.
Two more people died near the rural community of Happy Camp this week, while eight more died in California last month.
In Washington state, a one-year-old boy died while his parents were severely burned while trying to flee from hell 210 kilometers east of Seattle.
