Oregon and California Fires: Several Dead As Wildfires Force Evacuations

Raging fires across the coastal states have forced evacuations, strained fire-fighting resources and smothered much of the region in a twilight pall. While a heat wave has eased and California utilities that shut down their power lines to prevent fires have switched the lights back on, the lingering effects of wind storms this week are proving devastating.

More than half a million acres of forests and grassland burned in California on Wednesday alone, including a blaze in Butte County that killed at least three people. Air quality throughout the San Francisco Bay area reached unhealthy levels, with the eerie orange light that blanketed the region Wednesday giving way to a dismal yellow. In Oregon, Governor Kate Brown warned that some towns had been largely destroyed.

Oregon authorities say two people were found dead in a vehicle and said they expect more fatalities from wildfires raging in the state.

In addition, three people have died in a Northern California wildfire that has forced thousands from their homes, authorities said Wednesday. Two people were found dead in one location and a third person was discovered elsewhere, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea announced.

He didn’t provide details but California Highway Patrol Officer Ben Draper told the Bay Area News Group that one person was found in a car and apparently had been trying to escape the flames.

The fire northeast of San Francisco is threatening several communities. Stoked by high winds, it’s burned a 25-mile path through mountainous terrain and parched foothills. Hundreds of homes and other buildings are believed to have been damaged or destroyed, fire officials said at an evening news conference.

The fire even threatened the town of Paradise that was devastated just two years ago by the deadliest blaze in state history, causing a panic that led to a traffic jam as residents tried to escape.

The North Complex fire was one of more than two dozen in the state, including three of the five largest ever as wildfires burned across parts of the West amid gusty, dry conditions.

Forecasters said some weather relief was in sight that could help firefighters overwhelmed by the blazes. September and October typically mark the peak of California’s fire season, when plants have been sapped of moisture by the state’s dry summer. Rains most often return in October or November.

In California, gusts topping 60 miles per hour fanned fresh life into some blazes that began during a freak lightning storm last month -- while sparking more than 50 new ones. Wind-driven blazes also erupted across Oregon, which declared a statewide fire emergency as officials said downed power lines had sparked multiple blazes.

“Over the last 24 hours, Oregon has experienced unprecedented fire, with significant damage and devastating consequences across the entire state,” Governor Kate Brown said during a briefing Wednesday. “I want to be upfront and say we expect to see a great deal of loss, both in structures and in human lives.”

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