Wildfires rage across U.S. Northwest, California governor blames climate changeReuters, Sep 11, 2020
Sacramento, Calif. (Reuters) - Wildfires that have already destroyed at least half a dozen small towns in the northwestern United States raged largely uncontrolled on Friday as California’s governor called the fire season evidence of a climate emergency.
As of Friday afternoon about 500,000 people in Oregon were on notice to be ready to flee advancing flames, and crews picked through the smoldering rubble of destroyed homes in search of fatalities.
“This is a climate damn emergency. This is real and it’s happening. This is the perfect storm,†California Governor Gavin Newsom told reporters from a charred mountainside near Oroville, California.
In southern Oregon, an apocalyptic scene of burned residential subdivisions and trailer parks stretched for miles along Highway 99 south of Medford through Phoenix and Talent, one of the most devastated areas.
Beatriz Gomez Bolanos, 41, told her four children to close their eyes as fires burned on both sides of their car as they made their escape from the Bear Creek Mobile Home south of Medford as sparks began to rain down on their house.
“Everything is gone. We have to start again from nothing, but we are alive,†said Gomez Bolanos.
Molalla, a community about 25 miles (40 km) south of downtown Portland, was an ash-covered ghost town after its more than 9,000 residents were told to evacuate, with only 30 refusing to leave, the city’s fire department said.
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