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Wildfires Torch Huge Swaths of US West Coast

VOA News

   Huge swaths of America's West Coast are ablaze or in cinders as more
   than 100 wildfires raged largely uncontrolled late Friday from
   California to Washington state and beyond, incinerating entire towns
   and killing at least 24 people.

   More than 500,000 people in Oregon -- 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. The Oregon Convention Center in Portland has been transformed
   into a shelter for evacuees. Many evacuees have simply taken refuge in
   their cars in large parking lots.

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

   In southern Oregon, an apocalyptic scene of burned residential
   subdivisions and trailer parks stretched for kilometers along a highway
   -- a scene mirrored in parts of California, where the governor gave a
   blunt assessment.

   "This is a climate damn emergency. This is real and it's happening.
   This is the perfect storm," California Gov. Gavin Newsom said. "What
   we're experiencing right here is coming to communities all across the
   United States of America unless we get our act together on climate
   change." More than 68,000 people are under evacuation orders in
   California.

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