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LOS ANGELES: Half a million people have been evacuated in Oregon, state officials said Thursday (Sept. 10), as record-breaking wildfires ravage the west coast of the United States.
“Firefighters are prioritizing life safety as they fight a record 900,000 acres of wildfires across Oregon,” said a statement.
“About 500,000 Oregonians have been evacuated and that number continues to grow.”
READ: Dozens of wildfires burn the west coast of the US, killing at least nine
During the past 48 hours, four people died from wildfires in California, while four died in Oregon and a 1-year-old boy died in Washington state, police said.
Thousands faced evacuation orders in all three states.
Oregon has suffered the brunt of nearly 100 major wildfires that ravaged the western United States this week. About 3,000 firefighters have been fighting nearly three dozen fires in Oregon, and firefighters say it takes about twice as many personnel to control those conflagrations.
Police have opened a criminal investigation into at least one fire in Oregon, the Almeda Fire that started in Ashland near the California border, Ashland Police Chief Tighe O’Meara said.
O’Meara said investigators were treating the origins of the Almeda fire as suspect.
“We have good reason to believe that there was a human element in it. So we will follow it as a criminal investigation until we have reason to believe that it was otherwise,” he told Reuters.
