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Wildfires Burn Huge Swaths of US West Coast

VOA News

   Calmer winds and rising humidity helped firefighters battle more than
   100 wildfires Saturday that continued to rage largely uncontrolled
   along the U.S. West Coast from California to Washington state and
   beyond, incinerating entire towns and killing at least 24 people.

   Authorities were concerned, however, that the receding flames could
   lead to the discovery of more bodies across the blackened terrain in
   the region.

   "We are preparing for a mass fatality incident based on what we know
   and the numbers of structures that have been lost," Andrew Phelps,
   director of the Oregon Office of Emergency Management (OEM), said
   Friday.

   More than 40,000 people in Oregon have been evacuated and some 500,000
   -- more than 10% of its population -- remained under some level of
   evacuation protocol as fires in the state destroyed thousands of homes
   and burned hundreds of thousands of hectares. Oregon Governor Kate
   Brown on Friday amended Thursday's statement by OEM that said a
   half-million people throughout the state had been ordered to evacuate.

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