Wildfires have spiraled out of control in the US state of Oregon, and residents have been ordered to evacuate due to air pollution and the spread of fires in the west of the country.
Dozens of mercury fires have flared up in California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and other states of the American West, covering more than 3,100 square kilometers, highlighting the devastating effects of a drought that has plagued the region for more than two decades.
Thick smoke has enveloped cities in southwestern Oregon, including the tourist resort of Bend, while the Cedar Creek fire burned 37,450 hectares, more than twice the size of the US capital of Washington, and is now out of control. . Oregon State Fire Department.
The fires started in early August and turned the sky a dark orange.
High in a steep mountainous region, more than 1,200 fire and emergency services are mobilized, most of them in the hard-to-reach forest zone.
“Smoke continues to degrade air quality and this is likely to continue for several days,” the Oregon Fire Department said in a statement.
Similar warnings about poor air quality have been issued in the states of Idaho and Washington due to fires burning there.
The American West is suffering the effects of a devastating drought that has been going on for more than two decades, exacerbated by human-induced climate change, scientists say.
Drought hits much of the countryside, setting the stage for large-scale fires to break out quickly.
Another fire, the “Double Creek Fire”, has been raging since Aug. 30 in northeast Oregon, destroying more than 62,000 hectares of forest.
More than 90 fires are burning across seven states in the American West, according to the Fire Department’s Coordination Center.
The mosquito fire, currently the largest in California, burned more than 20,000 hectares in the Sierra Nevada mountains and a number of nearby cities were evacuated.
Firefighters work to put out a fire at Fairview in south Los Angeles that has killed two people.
Source: AFP.