Multiple Towns In Oregon "Substantially Destroyed"; CA/OR/WA Acres Lost To Date 20X Losses From 2019
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The devastation in Washington State was repeated up and down the parched West Coast on Wednesday as a wildfire season of unrivaled destruction continued to spread, destroying not only much of Malden but several other communities in the Northwest, while belching enough smoke to blot out the sun in San Francisco. At least seven people were killed in the recent blazes.
In California, fires have now charred some 2.5 million acres — a modern record and nearly 20 times what had burned at this time last year. In Washington, a wildfire pushed into suburban communities near Tacoma. And in Oregon, officials said hundreds and perhaps more than a thousand homes had already been destroyed.
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Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon called the fires in her state an “unprecedented” situation. She cited several communities that appeared to have been “substantially destroyed”: Blue River, Detroit, Phoenix, Talent, Vida. “We expect to see a great deal of loss, both in structures and in human lives,” Ms. Brown said. “This could be the greatest loss of human lives and property due to wildfire in our state’s history.”
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This wildfire season has been devastating all along the West Coast, fueled by an unusual summer wind event in the Northwest, a record-breaking heat wave followed by wind in California and the early signals of climate change, as warmer average temperatures leave lands parched and vulnerable to a fire started by a spark. In California, the Bear Fire north of Sacramento grew an astonishing 230,000 acres overnight, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes. The fire was burning in some of the same areas as the Camp Fire in 2018, which destroyed the town of Paradise.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/09/us/fires-washington-california-oregon-malden.html