Fire consumes western United States with 140,000 hectare blaze

It's been 13 days and the Bootleg fire doesn't stop growing.

The fire consumes the southern part of the State of Oregon, in the western United States.

More than 2,200 people organized in various brigades work to combat the burning, but it continues its catastrophic path fed by the hot air that rises from the south and by the dry woods and pastures that serve as fuel thanks to months of drought and high temperatures .

The Bootleg has been a disastrous disaster for forest areas, but so far it has not left any fatalities as it moves through rural and sparsely populated areas.

Authorities have placed Lake County, which is home to 7,000 people, on evacuation alert for Tuesday.

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The Bootleg Fire has burned 140,000 hectares as of Monday night, an area almost as large as the city of Los Angeles. This enormous size has made the work of the brigades more complicated, which has only been able to contain 30% and which had to interrupt the fight against the fire for nine consecutive days due to the erratic behavior of the flames. More than 5,000 houses have been under alert, but the work of the firefighters has caused that evacuation measures are relaxed or even that people return to their homes. The flames have scorched 70 houses and a hundred buildings such as barns and sheds, a low number compared to the losses that other fire seasons have left their way through Oregon in previous years.The burning is now heading north and east leaving thick plumes of smoke throughout the day and night.

The firefighters' job at the moment is to limit the damage that Bootleg leaves behind. The brigades corner the flames leaping from the main lines and can create a new fire. One of these already reached 10 square kilometers in area. Bootleg is close to incorporating into its path a smaller fire, the Log, which has been consuming the northeast of the Fremont Forest for days, nearly 500 kilometers south of Portland, the most populous city in the state.

James Johnston, an academic at the University of Oregon and an expert on these types of fires, has pointed out that this is the fourth largest fire in the State, the ninth largest in the United States. The largest, Long Draw, was recorded in 2012 and consumed 226,000 hectares, an area larger than that of Luxembourg in Europe. The Biscuit burned 200,000 hectares of national park in 2002. The professor assured the Associated Press that other incidents recorded between 1600 and 1700, which his team has rebuilt in his laboratory, were as large or more than the Bootleg. Burns of these magnitudes are usually on for months until they are extinguished by rains in autumn or early winter.

A father and son hug near a donated caravan after their house burned in the Bootleg fire near Beatty, Oregon, on July 19. DAVID RYDER / Reuters

The forecast is devastating for the coming weeks, mainly due to the high temperatures and years of drought that have affected the region.

At least 16 fires were active as of Monday night, in Oregon and California, incinerating nearly 200,000 hectares according to authorities at the Northwest Coordination Center.

Montana has 18 more and Idaho 17. More than 19,600 firefighters are fighting the flames in 2021, a year in which the historic number of fires for 2020 is expected to be exceeded.

California, neighboring southern Oregon, is also watching with concern the advance of the Tamarak fire, which is moving rapidly south of the highly touristy Lake Tahoe area. The fire started on July 4, when lightning struck a lone tree causing a small fire but surrounded by a natural barrier. The firefighters in the area left it for later, as they were busy extinguishing other fires in the region. The conditions and warm air of the last few days fed him. By July 16 it was already a disaster out of control: it is contained at 0% and has already burned about 10,000 hectares. State authorities have called for the evacuation of several areas of tiny Alpine County, which barely exceeds 1,000 residents.

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