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USA: fires on the US west coast continue to rage - many fatalities feared

2020-09-13T05:37:54.656Z


29 people die in major fires on the US west coast, but authorities suspect more casualties. Not all fire-ravaged places in California and Oregon are still accessible.


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Fire destroyed home in Mill City, Oregon

Photo: Gillian Flaccus / AP

According to media reports, at least 29 people died in the forest fires on the west coast of the USA, which have been raging for weeks.

NBC television reported 20 confirmed dead in the state of California since mid-August, eight in Oregon and one in Washington.

Dozens of people were also reported missing in the three states along the coast, and local authorities feared further deaths.

Tens of thousands of people have already had to leave their homes to flee the flames, and hundreds of thousands in Oregon alone are dependent on at least preparing for an evacuation.

According to the "New York Times", an area equivalent to around 20,200 square kilometers of forest had burned down in the past few weeks, roughly the area of ​​Rhineland-Palatinate or Saxony-Anhalt.

Tens of thousands of firefighters continued to fight the forest fires on Saturday, and the situation stabilized somewhat in some places.

In the state of Oregon, evacuation warning levels have been relaxed in some areas, according to The Oregonian newspaper.

There and in California, the authorities hoped for a relaxation through favorable winds and possible rain.

The news agency photos now mostly show people venturing back to their places and homes after the fires continued.

They are images of destruction, landscapes in ash and soot, of burned-out car wrecks.

The returnees poke around in the ruins of their houses for usable remains, for mementos.

Everything is destroyed.

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Fireman in the burned out remains of a house in Berry Creek, California

Photo: PETER DASILVA / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock

Soils particularly parched due to persistent drought

"My heart breaks for my wonderful state," wrote Oregon's Senator Jeff Merkley on Twitter on Saturday to pictures of burned down houses.

"This is the devastation I see today, left behind by these never-seen forest fires. Streets of houses and businesses, hopes and dreams, history and future, all destroyed."

This year, according to the "New York Times", the soils in Oregon in particular in the northwest of the state were parched due to severe drought, which means that the fires also spread to regions that are typically not affected by fires.

In Oregon, Saturday's fires also came close to the city of Portland.

According to the IQAir database, it was the city with the greatest air pollution in the world.

Doctors had also reported on CNN that the air quality in many cities had reached a level that was harmful to health.

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Totally exhausted firefighters near Mill City, Oregon

Photo: John Locher / AP

Trump visits disaster area in California

US President Donald Trump wants to be informed personally about the forest fires in California for the first time on Monday.

Trump will visit McClellan Park, a settlement north of Sacramento in the center of the state, confirmed spokesman Judd Deere for the dpa news agency.

He will take part in a meeting with regional and federal forces.

Trump had planned election campaign dates in the neighboring state of Nevada for the weekend and the beginning of the week, according to the US media an appointment in Arizona was also planned on Monday.

Meanwhile, Trump's Democratic contender in the election, Joe Biden, pointed out that the US president is still suppressing or downplaying the cause of these disasters: "The science is clear and deadly signs like these are unmistakable - climate change is an immediate one , poses an existential threat to our way of life, "said Biden.

Trump could try "to deny this reality, but the facts are undeniable".

Big fires in other states too

Forest fires are currently blazing in a dozen states in the western United States, including Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, Colorado and Idaho, according to the federal agency National Interagency Fire Center.

According to the authority, around 29,000 firefighters and other emergency services are fighting the flames throughout the affected region.

"We are in a climate crisis," said California Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday during a site visit to the burned-out forests near the village of Oroville.

Many scientists would have predicted this development years ago.

Scientists believe that the climate crisis will exacerbate drought, heat and weather extremes that contribute to more violent forest fires.

Six of the current fires are already among the 20 largest in California history since records began in 1930.

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oka / AFP / dpa

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2020-09-13

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