More than 20,000 firefighters were still fighting Saturday, September 12 against the flames ravaging the western United States, where the rescue services were counting on cooler and wetter weather to offer them a little respite this weekend.
However, the authorities are preparing Saturday to deplore "
a considerable number of deaths
".
A house is engulfed in flames during the fire in Fresno County, California.
JOSH EDELSON / AFP
A total of sixteen victims were recorded this week but it was impossible to assess the real extent of the destruction.
JOSH EDELSON / AFP
The authorities are preparing to deplore "a considerable number of deaths".
DAVID MCNEW / AFP
Fueled for days by chronic drought and high winds, the fires spread from the border of Canada to that of Mexico set sad records.
A total of sixteen victims were recorded this week but it was impossible to assess the real extent of the destruction, large areas still being inaccessible.
"
We expect that the number (of dead) may increase as we return to areas ravaged by the flames,
" warned California Governor Gavin Newsom after surrendering in the smoldering remains of a charred forest in the north of the state.
The sky over Concord, California.
BRITTANY HOSEA-SMALL / AFP
It was there, in Butte County, still traumatized by the memory of the November 2018 fires that left 86 people dead and burned the town of Paradise to ashes, that at least ten people perished in the flames this week, according to the latest relief report.
A swing and a burnt car.
KATHRYN ELSESSER / AFP
The charred remains of a house.
KATHRYN ELSESSER / AFP
The fire season, which frequently lasts until November, is still far from over.
KATHRYN ELSESSER / AFP
The fires were favored by high temperatures and a very dry atmosphere.
FRED GREAVES / REUTERS
In northwestern California, the fire dubbed "
August Complex Fire
", an assembly of 37 fires that affected the Mendocino Forest from August 17, officially became the largest in history in this state, with over 300,000 hectares burned.
These fires were favored by high temperatures and a very dry atmosphere but Governor Newsom welcomed the weather "
starting to cooperate
", with a drop in the wind and some precipitation expected in the days to come.
Two other people were killed in another fire that has ravaged for days an isolated area near Oregon, further north, a spokeswoman for the California fire department told AFP.
In Ashland, Oregon David Ryder / AFP
A whole neighborhood of Ashland has been reduced to ashes.
David Ryder / AFP
In Oregon, hundreds of thousands of people are threatened by the flames.
LATIF / REUTERS ADREES
In Oregon, too, officials were hopeful for better weather.
"
We expect fresher air and humidity in the days to come, which is really good news,
" said Governor Kate Brown, giving details of the evacuations underway in her state.
If the areas threatened by the dozens of current fires concern well 500,000 inhabitants in total, a little more than 40,000 people had actually been evacuated Friday at midday, said Kate Brown.
Other sources said hundreds of thousands of people had successfully evacuated.
Thousands of people were evacuated.
JOSH EDELSON / AFP
“
I wish the 2020 fires were just an anomaly, one-off episodes.
Unfortunately, they are only precursors of the future,
”lamented Kate Brown.
Air pollution rates in the cities of Portland, San Francisco and Seattle were among the highest in the world on Friday, according to a ranking compiled by the IQAir company.
Here, Los Angeles.
MARIO ANZUONI / REUTERS
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