Dozens of active fires in California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and other states in the western United States have devastates more than 3,100 square kilometers (1,200 square miles), highlighting the devastating effects of a more than two-decade-long drought that has left the region arid.
Thick smoke blanketed towns in southwestern Oregon, including Bend’s popular outdoor tourist gateway, as the Cedar Creek Fire continued to grow this week.
The fire had consumed 155,297 acres (62,846 hectares) as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the Oregon State Fire Police, but was only 15% contained. Evacuations have been ordered for some Oregon counties, though some orders have been relaxed amid cooler weather and milder winds.
The inferno – which started again in early August – turned the sky an eerie orange, as more than 1,200 firefighters and other personnel converged on steep hilly terrain, much of it in woodland. country of the United States and difficult to access.
Prolonged drought in the western part of the country has been made worse by climate change, scientists say. Many rural areas are arid, creating favorable conditions for Wildfires are hot, fast and destructive.
In CaliforniaThe Mosquito bite fire 177 kilometers (110 miles) northeast of San Francisco broke out Tuesday afternoon just hours after officials reported making “major strides” in the battle.
More than 11,000 people have been evacuated, officials said, and nearly 6,000 structures are threatened — a double-digit increase as the blaze broke out Tuesday near Foresthill and Todd Valley after a The spot fire occurred in the Middle Fork of the American River, officials said.
Cal Fire Public Information Officer Tyree Zander told Sacramento television station KXTV that air and ground crews were in a fierce battle for control of the blaze. He explained that ground workers were burning their backs, trying to light a fire to burn dry brooms on the mountainside, so that when the forest fire actually got there, it would have nothing left to burn.
