Historic-scale fires continued to ravage the west coast of the United States on Thursday, killing at least seven people including an infant and destroying hundreds of homes, forcing thousands to flee flames.
Read also: Fires ravage the American West Coast, six dead
The fires spread from Washington State in the north, bordering Canada, to San Diego, in southern California, fueled by drought and high winds.
They killed at least seven people, but the authorities fear a much heavier toll.
Three people have died in Butte County, Calif., Three in Oregon and a one-year-old baby found by rescue teams with his severely burned parents in Washington state.
Evacuation orders
Residents of Estacada, a small rural town in Oregon about 50 miles southeast of Portland, were ordered to evacuate at noon Wednesday.
Jason Valean, 29, left his house with his two large dogs and is waiting to find his mother, returned home to open the pen for his pigs, who will have a chance to escape the flames.
“The
whole other side is on fire,
” he told AFP, pointing to the orange smoke rising from the mountain.
Oregon is facing fires "
unprecedented in the history
" of the state, according to its governor, Kate Brown, who expected Wednesday "
many losses, in terms of buildings and human lives
."
Further south, near Fresno, California, other residents also had to flee within minutes.
"
I did not think we were going to be evacuated, it was done at the last minute,
" Leanna Mikesler, a resident of the village of Meadow Lake threatened by the fire called Creek Fire, told AFP.
“
We had to pack our bags, do what we can and help our neighbors,
” she added in front of an emergency accommodation center.
The fire burned 67,500 hectares, sowing desolation in its path: carcasses of cars, houses of which only the brick chimney remains ... Around 360 buildings were destroyed, according to the firefighters who deployed nearly a thousand men to fight the flames in the Sierra National Forest, suffocating the outbreaks with water or earth.
Read also: United States: more than 8,000 km2 burned in California, a record since 1987
Faced with the fire, several thousand people were evacuated, operations made even more difficult by the coronavirus epidemic.
In Fresno, the Red Cross requisitioned hundreds of hotel rooms to isolate evacuees and prevent the spread of Covid-19.
"
We placed (in the shelter) more than 600 people Tuesday evening and the previous evening
", explained to AFP Cindy Huge, a spokesperson for the organization.
Evacuees receive three meals a day and water, she added.
Maintaining physical distancing is an ongoing challenge.
Leanna Mikesler, she finds the situation "
difficult
".
“
But we can't really do otherwise,” she said.
With your animals and the world around you, it is very difficult to avoid contact
”.
Fires favored by climate change
More than 200,000 hectares went up in smoke in Washington state, according to Governor Jay Inslee, who on Thursday denounced the catastrophic consequences of climate change.
"
We will not abandon the future of this state in the face of climate change,
" he said on Twitter.
“
I will think about these fires and their impacts on our populations when we make our next decisions to fight climate change,
” he added.
In California, more than 20 fires are raging and this year the fire has consumed more than 10,000 km2 in the state, a record since these data were collected in 1987. Near Los Angeles, the “
Bobcat Fire
”, still out of control, devastated more than 8,000 hectares, according to firefighters.
Evacuation orders were also issued near San Diego, where more than 7,000 hectares burned in four days in the Valley Fire, according to local authorities.
