TALENT, Ore. — One hundred large wildfires have burned over 4.5 million acres across a dozen Western states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate in California, Oregon and Washington alone.
The fire season is one of the worst to date for all of the states, compounded by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. According to local reports, some people in Oregon have resorted to staying at local fairgrounds in tents after their homes burned down. Earlier this week, Washington Governor Jay Inslee said the fires were some of the most “catastrophic” in the state’s history.
The NIFC blames “unprecedented weather conditions” across the Western United States for the slew of fires.
While California is arguably the hardest-hit by the 2020 fire season, Oregon and Washington are facing increasingly dire conditions. Fortunately, Portland’s National Weather Service announced some improving air conditions will move in over the weekend—but that doesn’t mean the states are out of the woods yet.
Oregon
The number of people evacuated statewide because of fires rose to an estimated 500,000 — more than 10 percent of the state’s 4.2 million people, the Oregon Office of Emergency Management reported late Thursday.
One fire approached Molalla, triggering a mandatory evacuation order for the community of about 9,000 located 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Portland. A police car rolled through the streets with a loudspeaker blaring “evacuate now.”
Inmates were being moved from a women’s prison less than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from Interstate 5 in Portland’s southern suburbs “out of an abundance of caution,” the Oregon Department of Corrections said.
With two large fires threatening to merge, some firefighters in Clackamas County, which includes Molalla, were told to disengage temporarily because of the danger. Officials tried to reassure residents who abandoned their homes and law enforcement officials said police patrols would be stepped up to prevent looting.
Oregon officials haven’t released an exact death count for the wildfires but at least four fatalities have been reported in the state.
Oregon officials said they were shocked by the number of simultaneous fires, which stood at 37 Thursday, according to the state Office of Emergency Management.
Gov. Kate Brown said more than 1,400 square miles (3,600 square kilometers) have burned in Oregon over the past three days, nearly double the land that burns in a typical year in the state and an area greater than the size of Rhode Island.
Washington
Washington has been under a state of emergency since mid-August, when “abnormally dry weather conditions” sparked several fires across the state.
On Thursday, Gov. Jay Inslee issued a proclamation offering families impacted by the wildfires immediate cash assistance.
“For families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and now the devastating wildfires ravaging our state, funding from the Family Emergency Assistance Program can be, quite literally, a lifesaver,” Inslee said in a statement. “The state will continue to look for ways to support communities as we work together to recover from multiple economic and health emergencies.”
Small cities were especially hard-hit by the 16-plus blazes raging across Washington state.
Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers said a wind-driven fire destroyed an estimated 80% of the homes in the town of Malden, which is about 35 miles (55 kilometers) south of Spokane and has about 200 residents. Malden lost its fire station, post office, City Hall, library and most of its homes, according to the sheriff’s office.
“The scale of this disaster really can’t be expressed in words,” Myers said in a statement. “The fire will be extinguished, but a community has been changed for a lifetime.”
The fire was pushed by winds of up to 45 mph (72 kph). Deputies went door to door and used public-address systems to tell residents to evacuate.
“The destruction in Malden, Pine City, Colfax, and other towns in Eastern Washington is heartbreaking and unimaginable,” said Republican U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who represents the area.
On Wednesday, a one-year-old child and his parents died while trying to escape the Cold Springs Canyon Fire, the state’s largest blaze. Washington’s Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz released an emotional statement saying, “We can’t accept this as an unfortunate reality of living in the West.”
The National Weather Service has extended an air quality warning for the state through the weekend, which was originally set to expire on Thursday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
