At least 35 people have died and hundreds of structures have burned in serious wildfires in Oregon, California and Washington. Democratic governors of all three states say the fires are a consequence of climate change
Continue reading...Category Archives: Wildfires
Trump and Biden clash on climate as Hurricane Sally and wildfires rage – live
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- Firefighters pushed to limit as infernos rage across west coast
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There’s a quick snap from Reuters here that the city government of Louisville, Kentucky, is expected to announce on Tuesday a financial settlement with the family of Breonna Taylor, the Black woman fatally shot by police in March.
The Courier Journal has reported locally that the “substantial” settlement will be accompanied by police reforms, including a requirement that commanders approve search warrants before they are put to a judge.
Forecasters say Hurricane Sally could dump flooding rains on a path from Mississippi to the Carolinas this week after the storm makes landfall on the Gulf Coast.
The National Weather Service says after the storm comes inland Wednesday, rainfall of 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) is likely across portions of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas.
‘I don’t think science knows’: Trump denies climate change link to wildfires – video
The US president is urged to recognise the changing climate and what it means to forests, during a briefing on the wildfires in California on Monday. Trump interrupts an official, Wade Crowfoot, the secretary of California’s Natural Resources Agency, to argue the climate 'will start getting cooler, you just watch'. Crowfoot responds: 'I wish science agreed with you.' To which Trump retorts: 'I don’t think science knows actually'
Continue reading...Biden calls Trump a ‘climate arsonist’ as wildfires rage – video
Joe Biden addressed record-setting wildfires in the western US while on the presidential campaign, calling Donald Trump a 'climate arsonist'.
Meanwhile Donald Trump arrived in California, citing the importance of forest management.
Continue reading...Biden condemns Trump as ‘climate arsonist’ as wildfires burn – live
- Democratic contender attacks Trump’s climate strategy
- Trump dismisses concerns about virus spread at Nevada rally
- Biden: Climate change is ‘not a partisan phenomenon’
- Trump to Woodward: ‘Nothing more could have been done’ on Covid
- Nearly all missing people accounted for as at least 35 killed US fires
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Trump has landed in California, where he will receive a briefing on the west coast wildfires, which have already claimed at least 35 lives.
“There has to be good, strong forest management, which I’ve been talking about for three years with the states, so hopefully they’ll start doing that,” Trump said.
Trump is in California mispronouncing "Oregon" and insisting that wildfires are caused be poor forest management pic.twitter.com/zydXDoe3DT
Joe Biden closed his climate speech by noting he continues to pray for Americans on the west coast who have been affected by the wildfires.
“We see the light through the dark smoke. We never give up. Always,” Biden said.
Continue reading...Bigger than London, bigger than New York City: visualizing the size of fires in the US
This interactive map shows the total area burned since 15 August in America’s west, compared with various major cities
Record-breaking wildfires are burning across the American west.
The blazes scorching parts of California, Oregon and Washington state have destroyed millions of acres, leveled entire towns and displaced hundreds of thousands. Dozens of people have been reported dead or missing.
Continue reading...US wildfires: politicians condemn Trump for blaming ‘forest management’ – video
Politicians strongly criticised the US president for his response to the escalating wildfire crisis in the west coast after he claimed 'forest management' was the main culprit for the emergency.
The death toll from wildfires choking the west coast of the US continued to rise on Sunday as authorities said more bodies were likely to be found in the charred ruins of towns across several states
Continue reading...Record-breaking wildfires in Brazil threaten endangered species – video
Record-breaking wildfires are threatening thousands of acres of one of the most biologically diverse areas on the planet, Brazil's Pantanal region.
'Sometimes we are a bit frustrated, but we try to have hope and to rescue the few animals we can,' said 26-year-old vet Karen Ribeiro at one of the shelters, where rescue units and volunteers are bringing in animals including jaguars for evacuation
Continue reading...Fire crews in Oregon and California fight blazes as officials warn of further deaths
- Dozens still missing and tens of thousands forced to flee
- Lighter winds and rising humidity help firefighters’ efforts
Fire crews in California and Oregon reported making progress on several blazes over the weekend, as lighter winds and lower temperatures aided the battle against the massive fires raging across the west.
But officials in both states told residents to brace for bad news, as rescue teams start combing through towns and neighborhoods leveled by the infernos.
Continue reading...California governor: ‘We are in the midst of a climate emergency’ – video
The California governor, Gavin Newsom, said ‘this is not a world that anyone should be experiencing’ as he surveyed charred mountain terrain devastated by wildfires. ‘If you do not believe in science, I hope you believe in observed evidence,’ he added. More than 68,000 people are under evacuation orders in California where the largest fire in state history has burned over 740,000 acres in the Mendocino National forest
Continue reading...As fires burn the west, top Democrats stay quiet on the climate crisis
Nancy Pelosi has been notably tepid on green legislation – so are the Democrats serious about fighting climate change?
With hundreds of thousands of Americans forced to evacuate their homes in the western US, Donald Trump hasn’t said a word about the wildfires blazing across multiple states in nearly three weeks.
Related: Oregon fires force hundreds of thousands to flee as deaths rise
Continue reading...Dozens missing in Oregon as historic fires devastate western US
- At least 23 dead in California, Oregon and Washington
- Washington governor: ‘We have to think of it as a climate fire’
- Follow for live updates of the wildfires
Dozens of people are missing and at least 23 people are believed to have been killed as historic wildfires in the western US forced evacuations, stretched fire crews thin and spawned misinformation.
Residents of Portland, Oregon, awoke on Friday to air thick with smoke pollution that dimmed the sun and turned the skies blood-orange red. Hundreds of firefighters are battling two large wildfires that threatened to merge near the most populated part of Oregon, including the suburbs of Portland, and the governor said dozens of people are missing in other parts of the state.
Continue reading...‘I have never seen anything like this’: Oregon towns emptied and confusion spreads amid fires
In Molalla and other western towns, fear, uncertainty and disinformation gripped residents as hundreds of thousands in the state evacuate
Hundreds of thousands of people in Oregon were ordered to leave their homes on Thursday as wildfires encroached on their properties. The evacuations clogged highways, emptied entire towns and sparked confusion in a state that has not grappled with wildfires of this size before.
Large-scale evacuations in the state began within the metropolitan area of Portland, Oregon’s largest city. Clackamas county, home to some 420,000 people in the metro’s south, was already under varying levels of fire alert when officials on Thursday afternoon told residents of the city of Molalla to leave.
Continue reading...Drone vision captures razed communities and burnt-out cars after Oregon wildfires – video
Footage shot over Eagle Point shows flattened residential areas after nearly 100 major wildfires ripped through the US west. At least three people have been killed in Oregon with the governor, Kate Brown, warning that the state faces further hardship as authorities battle to contain the blazes
Continue reading...US wildfires: Oregon has ‘never seen this amount of uncontained fire’, governor says – live
- At least eight killed in three states as winds fuel blazes
- Major wind-driven fires in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado and other states
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Washington state’s governor, Jay Inslee, said today that the fires in the state have burned nearly 937 sq miles (2,426km).
“We’ve had this trauma all over Washington,” Inslee said, KHQ-TV reported. The governor was touring the farm town of Malden, which is 35 miles south of Spokane: “But this is the place where the whole heart of the town was torn out.”
Stunned residents of the small Oregon town of Phoenix walked through a scene of devastation Thursday after one of the state’s many wildfires wiped out much of their community, including a mobile home park, houses and businesses, the AP reports on the ground.
There were flames across the street from me, flames to the right of me, flames to the left of me. I just watched everything burn.”
Burned out cars, charred lawn ornaments, rubble. That’s what’s left of this Phoenix mobile home park, which covers abt 20 acres. Flames and smoldering embers still visible here. Everything is blackened by fire.
This was home to abt 300 people. pic.twitter.com/DrDobLKVev
Mayor Chris Luz talks about the loss of Puck’s Donuts. pic.twitter.com/4qz2gLy9Jb
Continue reading...Oregon fires force 500,000 to evacuate as blazes across American west kill 15
- Unprecedented fire conditions burn more than 900,000 acres
- Firefighting resources are stretched thin in three states
More than 500,000 people in Oregon have been forced to evacuate as unprecedented wildfires rage across the state, amounting to more than 10% of the population, authorities said Thursday.
Wildfires searing through the American west have killed at least 15 people, leveled entire neighborhoods and forced stretched firefighting crews to make tough decisions about where to deploy.
Continue reading...Western wildfires rage in California, Oregon and Washington – in pictures
More than 85 significant wildfires are burning across the west, where a record 2.5m acres have been destroyed in the latest batch of blazes. At least seven people have died and the dense plumes of smoke have turned skies red and amber
Continue reading...Western wildfires rage in California, Oregon and Washington – in pictures
More than 85 significant wildfires are burning across the west, where a record 2.5m acres have been destroyed in the latest batch of blazes. At least seven people have died and the dense plumes of smoke have turned skies red and amber
Continue reading...Winds fuel wildfires in California as blazes rage across US west
Region sees amber skies while Washington state faces more acres burned in a day than typically burn in a year
Large, fast-moving fires raged on across the American west on Wednesday, destroying hundreds of homes in the Pacific north-west and sending a dense plume of smoke that turned skies amber across parts of the region.
Related: California, Oregon and Washington battle dozens of fires – live updates
Continue reading...California skies glow orange as wildfires continue – in pictures
Dozens of blazes continue to rage in California with a record 2.2m acres burned. Bay Area residents awoke on Wednesday to orange skies
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