Fires light up a hillside behind the Bidwell Bar Bridge in Oroville, California. Photo:AP
Wildfires in Oregon and California devastate forests and land, death toll expected to rise
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily | SEPTEMBER 13th 2020
Search and rescue crews are using dogs in their searches throughout California and Oregon, trying to find missing people in the charred, blackened remains of forests destroyed by the brutal wildfires that’ve torn across the states.
The fires have killed at least 26 people since early August, and it’s been estimated that thus far, they’ve burned through a land equalling in the size of the state of New Jersey. Thousands of homes were burned to the ground, and many towns were evacuated.
“The fire melted the motor right out of my truck - it drained down the driveway,” said Matt Manson, a 43-year-old construction worker who’d returned to his neighbourhood in Phoenix, Oregon to find the remains of his burned up, destroyed house on Friday. “I lost everything. I lost all my tools. My truck. I can’t work. I lost $30,000 worth of guitars. All gone.”
Manson, like many others who used to live in the now scorched land, is left only with a backpack, a change of clothes, and a bare minimum of any earthly possessions. Some people have even less, following the disaster. “It looks like a war just happened here,” he added. Though 26 people have been reported dead, authorities say that they expect to find more bodies of missing people in the remains of the fires’ destruction.
According to Oregon’s wildfire tracking website, at least 6 people have died this week in the state due to the fires. Half a million people were forced to evacuate, smoke darkened the sky for days as the countryside was torched. California and Washington suffered similar trouble with the outbreak of flames, and firefighters struggled to contain the blazes. It’s also been revealed that the fires this week have burned around 900,000 acres of land in Oregon, which is more than twice the average of the yearly burned acreage in the decade.
As of Saturday afternoon, California firefighters numbering in the tens of thousands were busy battling 28 major blazes. The improvement of weather conditions was what eventually gave them an edge over the waves of fire, and helped them to gain some measure of stability, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
